Biomaterials and tissular engineering: a new way for sciencesToday, through this first blog post, I go tried to introduce you and to make you discover the domains of biomaterials and tissular engineering. I am fascinated by these two domains and I have the opportunity to do my internship in a laboratory in the interface of these two domains. I am thus going to explain to you which are the subjects of studies, the issues, the applications and the perspectives for biomaterials and tissular engineering. To start, we are going to define what is one biomaterials and for it we are going to leave the definition given during the conferences of Chester to the United Kingdom in 1986 which is generally admitted by the scientific but also medical community and which indicates a «not alive material, used in a medical device and conceived to interact with biological systems, that it participates in constitution of an equipment with diagnostic aim or with that of a substitute of tissue or organ, or still in that of a device of substitution (or assistance) functional». [1] As you will have understood it, biomaterials are natural or synthetic materials which are going to interact with our body. We can use various types of materials as metals, ceramics or still polymers. We can use them in many applications as the conception of prostheses or artificial organs (see Fig.1) but we can also use it for the production of medicine of which we are going to control the diffusion in the body thanks to the types of used biomaterials or then we can also use biomaterials as support for the tissular engineering. Figure 1: Example of a prosthesis of ceramic hip [2] and the artificial heart Carmat [3] Biomaterials is an interdisciplinary domain because to study it, we use of the biology for the interactions with the body, the chemistry for the synthesis, the characterization and the reactions of materials but also physics and mathematics for the studies of the applied forces or for the formation and the characteristics of materials. Another important domain is the medicine without whom it would be impossible being able to make accessible biomaterials to the patients. Biomaterials are thus a complex domain to study and which contain many issues. Indeed, we can study the biomaterials of various manners and for different applications. For example, there are many problems in biomaterials as problems of biocompatibility of implants, or still the biodegradability of materials. Actually, it is very complicated to make biomaterials which will have at the same time the properties wanted to treat the patient and which will be harmless as well on the short term as the long term. Furthermore, in these problems are added economic issues because it has to be as much as possible accessible to all. Finally, we can even add ethical issues on questions connected to the use of artificial organs with the fear of having «an immortal Man» or «a superman». Henceforth, let us approach the tissular engineering which corresponds as its name indicates it to the study of tissues. This domain mainly aims at maintaining, at treating or at restoring tissues of the body. We speak very often about regenerative medicine. There are many strategies to study the tissular engineering. For example, we can try to focus its studies on the cell culture and the cellular mechanisms to have a better fundamental knowledge, we can also try to concentrate on applications as to regenerate tissues by combining the use of growth factor during the cell culture or still by using materials with various 3D architectures. There are also many studies on stem cells with the aim of being able to synthesize any type of tissues or treating sick tissues. The tissular engineering is also a very interdisciplinary domain in which is combined the biology and the engineers sciences. This domain is very complex because it is necessary to try to develop high technologies which are on the scale of the micrometer or of the nanometer. Biomaterials and tissular engineering are two domains which can be together used. We can combine them for applications in regenerative medicine. One of the strategies which is more and more developed is the one to use a support in biomaterials on which we are going to put a growth factor which is going to allow for example the cells which come to adhere to its surface to differ in tissues wanted (see Fig.2). However, this kind of study is very complicated because even if we obtain it from good in vitro results, it happens very often that it is much more difficult to set up in vivo. Figure 2: Combination of biomaterials and tissular engineering for the regenerative medicine [4]
Nowadays, biomaterials and tissular engineering are two domains which know a strong development. They are used in many applications as the production of prostheses, artificial organs or still in the regenerative medicine. They also contain important issues which are scientific, economic and ethical. These two domains are really more and more to study and represent a new way for the future of the sciences because the discoveries do not stop increasing and the applications are more and more present and allow every year to treat thousands of people in the world. Now that you know a little more about biomaterials and tissular engineering, I would make you discover my laboratory and my subject of study in the next blog post. Thank you for your reading and see you soon! References: [1] http://www.inserm.fr/thematiques/technologies-pour-la-sante/dossiers-d-information/biomateriaux [2] http://www.chirurgiedelahanche.com/3.aspx?sr=1 [3] http://www.lemonde.fr/sante/article/2016/01/21/mort-du-quatrieme-patient-greffe-du-c-ur-artificiel-de-carmat_4850749_1651302.html [4] http://theses.ulaval.ca/archimede/fichiers/22182/ch02.html
6 Comments
Thank you for these explanations about biomaterials and tissular engineering.
Reply
Loïc
12/10/2016 11:51:26 am
Thank you for the link of the article and your comment Cécile!
Reply
Hey loïc !
Reply
Loïc
23/10/2016 06:36:43 am
Hi Léon,
Reply
Nathan
23/10/2016 09:27:42 am
Hi Loïc !
Reply
Loïc
11/11/2016 10:17:21 am
Hi Nathan,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |