Dr. Xingxing Yang's Seminar on Naturally Occurring Biomaterials and their Potential Applications in Tissue Engineering

Dr. Xingxing Yang gave a seminar on June 29, 2023 online and face-to-face. Her talk was on “Naturally occurring biomaterials and their potential applications in tissue engineering”.

Abstract:

The Extracellular matrix (ECM) is a three-dimensional network consisting of non-cellular components that are widely present in all tissues and organs, providing not only the necessary physical support for cells but also the critical biochemical and biomechanical clues for tissues and cells. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) represent an important extracellular matrix (ECM), particularly in GAG-rich tissues such as nucleus pulposus (NP) and cartilage. The fabrication of GAG-rich scaffolds is full of challenges as GAG is rapidly released due to GAG being highly hydrophilic, therefore, the GAG/hydroxyproline (HYP) ratio of the existing scaffolds is significantly lower than the native NP. In this study, we chemically modified the ECM components, including collagen (Col) and hyaluronic acid (HA), novel biomaterials that mimic the complex ECM of GAG-rich tissues, and novel biomaterials that effectively deliver genes into cells were synthesized. Positively charged aminated collagen (aCol) was combined with aminated hyaluronic acid (aHA) to effectively incorporate GAGs into the ECM meshwork in synthesizing a compositionally, structurally, and functionally biomimetic ECM for GAG-rich tissues. Positively charged aCol was also combined with another naturally occurring biomaterial chitosan to effectively deliver genes and hence augment growth factor secretion of cells for tissue engineering application. This work demonstrated that chemical modification of ECM components and associated novel biomaterials enhanced the incorporation of GAGs and condensation with plasmids, facilitating their potential applications in scaffolding, cell, and molecular therapy for musculoskeletal tissue engineering.

Learn more about our biomimetic scaffolds here.