| AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session BI+MG-WeA |
| Session: | Design and Discovery: Biointerfaces |
| Presenter: | Clemens van Blitterswijk, Maastricht University, The Netherlands |
| Authors: | C. van Blitterswijk, Maastricht University, The Netherlands R. Truckenmuller, Maastricht University, The Netherlands L. Moroni, Maastricht University, The Netherlands N. Rivron, Maastricht University, The Netherlands P. Habibovic, Maastricht University, The Netherlands J. De Boer, Maastricht University, The Netherlands |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The interaction of cells and materials at their interface is crucial for the performance of devices that are applied in regenerative medicine.In general the approach to optimize interaction is characterized by a mechanistic low throughput research cycle where researchers try to move forward by improving performance based on fundamental insights and related small volume in vitro/in vivo experiments. Although this approach has successes it has its disadvantages. First as the field of regenerative medicine is young we currently lack fundamental insights into many of aspects that are relevant to our field.Second, the research cycle is slow, so if our experiments do not give the anticipated results we may lose several years.Third,the conventional approach only allows us to test a maximum of ca.10 experimental conditions in one cycle forces us to leave out many other possibly equally interesting, opportunities.
In our lab we are convinced on how influential surface geometry of material can be on cell behavior and in vivo response by recently inducing prominent bone formation in muscle tissue in large animals by modulating the biomaterial surface in the submicrometer range.The effects of these instructive materials are equivalent to the use of growth factors while no biological agents or cultivated cells were applied.As we have no complete insight in the underlying mechanism,a conventional low throughput mechanistic approach does not seem the method of choice for further optimizing this performance and applying it to other tissue types.
Therefore,we developed multiwell screening systems that allow us to test a selection of thousands of surfaces from a truly designed high throughput library of 150 million different surface features in a single run. We have shown that this method allows us to modify cell shape and function in a remarkable way,both as far as cell attachment,proliferation and differentiation are concerned.As the above topochip platform is focused on 2D single cell performance and actual tissues are 3D and multicellular we have developed alternative platforms that allow us the build 3D mesoscale complex tissues in the thousands,while we have also generated so called 2,5 D muliwell systems that present convex surface features. Applying such systems allowed us to demonstrate that the mechanism of function follows form not only holds for individual cells but equally for millimeter scale cell aggregates.We are currently applying these technology platforms to create deeper insights in formation of tissues for regenerative medicine by introducing very early(embryonic)tissues in these systems while actively collaborating with developmental cell biologists.