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This chapter aims to provide a brief insight into the latest in vivo research related to the applications of multifunctional calcium phosphate coatings on titanium surfaces in dentistry. The prevention of inflammatory responses and promotion of osseointegration and biological fixation are some of the critical requirements for any implants. Consequently, surface modifications through coating deposition on these materials are intended to provide protection against metal ion release that could elicit a negative host response. The research and deposition of calcium phosphate have undergone a revolution, and a greater emphasis will be placed on the incorporation of therapeutic ions, growth factors, stem cells, and antibiotics as multifunctional coatings to reduce the timeframe for implant integration and failure due to postoperative bacterial infections in both healthy and osteoporotic patients.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, microvesicles, and other lipid vesicles derived from cells, play a pivotal role in intercellular communication by transferring information between cells. EVs secreted by progenitor and stem cells have been associated with the therapeutic effects observed in cell-based therapies, and they also contribute to tissue regeneration following injury, such as in orthopaedic surgery cases. This review explores the involvement of EVs in nerve regeneration, their potential as drug carriers, and their significance in stem cell research and cell-free therapies. It underscores the importance of bioengineers comprehending and manipulating EV activity to optimize the efficacy of tissue engineering and regenerative therapies.

Bone tissue engineering is based on a comprehensive understanding of bone structure, bone mechanics, and biology. In order to create nanostructured hydroxyapatite powders with customized properties, many synthesis strategies such as wet chemical precipitation, sol-gel, hydrothermal, and biomimetic approaches have been intensively researched through the years. Calcium phosphate (CaP)-based ceramic nanoparticles, including hydroxyapatite (HAp), were synthesized by the chemical precipitation technique at pH ranges of 7 to 11 and different calcination temperatures of 600 to 1100 °C. The synthesized powders were characterized by several techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), and in vitro cell culture assays. The particle size analysis and zeta potential of these powders were also carried out using the dynamic light scattering (DLS) and laser Doppler electrophoresis methods. The results showed that the pH levels of 9 to 11 range and calcination temperatures of 600 to 800 °C were adequate for appropriate nanohydroxyapatite powder production using this method. The particle size of the nanohydroxyapatite was approximately 55 nm, although they were agglomerated after calcination. The biocompatibility tests demonstrated that these nanohydroxyapatite (nHAp) powders produced have appropriate cytocompatibility and can be used for bone graft production and other biomedical applications.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the addition of Mg ion on calcium phosphate during mechanochemical synthesis. Ca(OH)2, dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD), and Mg(OH)2 were mechanochemically synthesized using ball milling with pure water. The prepared samples were evaluated by powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), FT-infrared (IR) spectral analysis, and a TNF alpha test with murine macrophage-like cell line RAW264.7 cells for assessing the immune activation. The cell culture studies indicated that CaMg apatite can be used as bioceramic. Mg ion-doped Ca apatite, which also contains carbonated ions in the crystal, was identified based on the XRD patterns and FTIR spectra. The unique diffraction peaks of apatite at 211, 112, 300, and 202 decreased in the sample containing Mg(OH)2, suggesting a decrease in the rate of crystallization. In addition, the phosphate infrared bands of the samples were different from those of the carbonated apatite. To investigate the details of the effects of Mg ion, multiple spectra combining XRD patterns and FTIR spectra were prepared. The multiple spectra datasets were used for the estimation by multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS). The effects of Mg ion on apatite as calcium phosphate were investigated by multiple spectra multivariate analysis. The analysis postulated that Mg ion decreased the apatite crystallinities possibly by adsorption at the growth sides and that these added ions strongly inhibited the formation of the thermodynamically most stable hydroxyapatite.

Strontium-substituted apatite has been proposed as a promising material for osteoporosis treatment. Several synthesis methods have been attempted in the past. In this study, we investigated a method known as the mechanochemical synthesis method. Characterization was carried out using different amounts of strontium ions in the hydroxyapatite (HAp) matrix with FT-IR spectral analysis, X-ray diffraction, lattice constant measurements, differential thermal analysis (DTA), terahertz spectroscopy, and investigation of the basic morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). We report that the development and performance of mechanochemical synthetic pathways are more efficient and economical than other substituted apatite formation methods and are useful in the biomedical field to produce calcium phosphate-based clinical materials. The FTIR spectra, terahertz spectra, and XRD analysis results revealed that the mixture of dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD), Ca(OH)2 and Sr(OH)2 8H2O was phase-transformed into strontium-containing carbonate amorphous apatite by this simple and economical mechanochemical synthesis method.

Principal component analysis (PCA) as a machine-learning technique could serve in disease diagnosis and prognosis by evaluating the dynamic morphological features of exosomes via Cryo-TEM-imaging. This hypothesis was investigated after the crude isolation of similarly featured exosomes derived from the extracellular vehicles (EVs) of immature dendritic cells (IDCs) JAWSII. It is possible to identify functional molecular groups by FTIR, but the unique physical and morphological characteristics of exosomes can only be revealed by specialized imaging techniques such as cryo-TEM. On the other hand, PCA has the ability to examine the morphological features of each of these IDC-derived exosomes by considering software parameters such as various membrane projections and differences in Gaussians, Hessian, hue, and class to assess the 3D orientation, shape, size, and brightness of the isolated IDC-derived exosome structures. In addition, Brownian motions from nanoparticle tracking analysis of EV IDC-derived exosomes were also compared with EV IDC-derived exosome images collected by scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy. Sodium-Dodecyl-Sulphate-Polyacrylamide-Gel-Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was performed to separate the protein content of the crude isolates showing that no considerable protein contamination occurred during the crude isolation technique of IDC-derived-exosomes. This is an important finding because no additional purification of these exosomes is required, making PCA analysis both valuable and novel.

Wound management following surgery is challenging because of high rates of wound infections due to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and increased risk of allergic reactions. On the other hand, several factors play significant roles in wound healing such as surgical techniques used, aging, oxygenation and pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes. The application of wound dressings plays critical roles in wound healing and infectious prevention. The choice of proper wound dressing depends on the type of a wound. This chapter will comprehensively discuss advances in surgical wound dressings for soft and hard tissues with a focus on proper preparations techniques and characterizations. Different post-operative wound healing monitoring procedures will also be covered.

The constantly evolving field of regenerative medicine deals with replacing, repairing, or regenerating tissue by using multidisciplinary scientific fields for humans and animals suffering from various injuries to severe diseases. Tissue engineering takes cell biology, materials science, and engineering principles to replace or repair damaged tissues. The scale of stem cell applications in regenerative medicine has increased extensively to develop various clinical-based treatments and potential stem cell-based therapies. This chapter provides an overview of different stem cell sources and their self-renewal, differentiation mechanisms in the regenerative medicine field with the importance of proteomics analyses to understand the stem cell biological processes. Additionally, the importance of biomaterials selection for stem cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications is also discussed in this chapter.

During the last two decades, self-healing materials have been attracting increasing interest in both engineering and medical applications. Numerous attempts have been presented focusing on the development of different self-healing systems in both natural and synthetic materials with several new production and synthesis methods and self-repair mechanisms. The current review aims to present some of the most important natural self-healing materials and systems from human hard tissues to marine structures and animal tissue and organ regeneration that can heal or regrow their tissues and parts of their bodies. These are presented in different sections, which include, hard tissue generation and fracture repair, animal tissue generation and organ repair, marine structures, self-repairing coatings for metallic alloys, concrete, hydrogels and polymers just to show the different approaches in this new and fascinating field of self-repair mechanism. Emphasis is given on the areas of tissue engineering, drug delivery, medical materials and devices and implant applications.

Synthetic protocells are rudimentary origin-of-life versions of natural cell counterparts. Protocells are widely engineered to advance efforts and useful accepted outcomes in synthetic biology, soft matter chemistry and bioinspired materials chemistry. Protocells in collective symbiosis generate synthetic proto-tissues that display unprecedented autonomy and yield advanced materials with desirable life-like features for smart multi-drug delivery, micro bioreactors, renewable fuel production, environmental clean-up, and medicine. Current levels of protocell and proto-tissue functionality and adaptivity are just sufficient to apply them in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, where they animate biomaterials and increase therapeutic cell productivity. As of now, structural biomaterials for tissue engineering lack the properties of living biomaterials such as self-repair, stochasticity, cell synergy and the sequencing of molecular and cellular events. Future protocell-based biomaterials provide these core properties of living organisms, but excluding evolution. Most importantly, protocells are programmable for a broad array of cell functions and behaviors and collectively in consortia are tunable for multivariate functions. Inspired by upcoming designs of smart protocells, we review their developmental background and cover the most recently reported developments in this promising field of synthetic proto-biology. Our emphasis is on manufacturing proto-tissues for tissue engineering of organoids, stem cell niches and reprogramming and tissue formation through stages of embryonic development. We also highlight the exciting reported developments arising from fusing living cells and tissues, in a valuable hybrid symbiosis, with synthetic counterparts to bring about novel functions, and living tissue products for a new synthetic tissue engineering discipline.

Dental implants have been used as far back as 2000BC, and since then have developed into highly sophisticated solutions for tooth replacement. It is becoming increasingly important for the materials used in dental implants to exhibit and maintain favorable long-term mechanical, biological and more recently, aesthetic properties. This review aims to assess the biomaterials used in modern dental implants, introducing their properties, and concentrating on modifications to improve these biomaterials. Focus is drawn to the prominent biomaterials, titanium (Ti) and zirconia due to their prevalence in implant dentistry. Additionally, novel coatings and materials with potential use as viable improvements or alternatives are reviewed. An effective dental biomaterial should osseointegrate, maintain structural integrity, resist corrosion and infection, and not cause systemic toxicity or cytotoxicity. Current materials such as bioactive glass offer protection against biofilm formation, and when combined with a titanium‐zirconium (TiZr) alloy, provide a reliable combination of properties to represent a competitive alternative. Further long-term clinical studies are needed to inform the development of next-generation materials.Significance StatementBiomaterials have become essential for modern implants. A suitable implant biomaterial integrates into the body to perform a key function, whilst minimizing negative immune response. Focusing on dentistry, the use of dental implants for tooth replacement requires a balance between bodily response, mechanical structure and performance, and aesthetics. This mini-review addresses the use of biomaterials in dental implants with significant comparisons drawn between Ti and zirconia. Attention is drawn to optimizing surface modification processes and the additional use of coatings. Alternatives and novel developments are addressed, providing potential implications of combining biomaterials to form novel compos

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Nanomaterials such as nanostructured scaffolds in tissue engineering and nanoparticles in drug delivery systems are associated with many applications within the biomedical and dental arenas. Furthermore, nanotechnology has also played an important role in the modifications of surface properties of surgical-grade materials and implants to achieve improvements in in vivo performance and reliability. The utilizations of nanocoatings, nanocomposite coatings, and nanolaminates are also intended to enhance osseointegration and improved protection from the release of unnecessary or even harmful metal ions. Due to their nanocrystalline structure and increase surface area, they become more reactive and hence they can also be synthesized to deliver faster tissue bonding properties and exceptional bioactivity. These new generation nanocoatings based on inorganic and biological materials such as proteins and peptides are currently being developed and investigated. This review aims to give an overview into the recent advances in nanocoatings containing biological materials being applied in medicine.