Supramolecular Biopolymers for Tissue Engineering

Figure 2

TE is built on the following important pillars comprised of the development of organ and tissue architecture, bioengineering techniques, and material science. SBPs are involved in all these three pillars of TE with the aim to develop tissue-specific constructs for a variety of complex human organ systems; nowadays, SBPs have proven resourceful for the proliferation of neurons [60], endothelial cells [61], kidney cells [62], fibroblasts [63], osteocytes from mesenchymal stem cells [64], and complex skin regeneration [65]. SBPs can be used cooperatively with other technologies to create versatile and smart scaffolds for TE. For instance, in order to obtain complex architectures, SBPs can be coupled with additive manufacturing techniques [66]. SBPs can also be coupled with bioengineering tools such as the use of stem cells [67] to create complex tissue-like cultures or the use of genetic tools to create active therapeutic scaffolds [68]. Finally, these materials can be designed to have triggered assembly mechanisms [26], as well as to control cell mechanics by their structural composition [23].