Cell adhesion on artificial materials for tissue engineering

Abstract

Advanced interdisciplinary scientific field of tissue engineering has been developed to meet increasing demand for safe, functional and easy available substitutes of irreversibly damaged tissues and organs. First biomaterials were constructed as "two-dimensional" (allowing cell adhesion only on their surface), and durable (non-biodegradable). In contrast, biomaterials of new generation are characterized by so-called three dimensional porous or scaffold-like architecture promoting attachment, growth and differentiation of cells inside the material, accompanied by its gradual removal and replacement with regenerated fully functional tissue. In order to control these processes, these materials are endowed with a defined spectrum of bioactive molecules, such as ligands for adhesion receptors on cells, functional parts of natural growth factors, hormones and enzymes or synthetic regulators of cell behavior, incorporated in defined concentrations and spatial distribution against a bioinert background resistant to uncontrolled protein adsorption and cell adhesion.