Biological tissues have the remarkable ability to remodel and repair in response to disease, injury and mechanical stresses. Synthetic materials lack the complexity of biological tissues, and man-made materials that respond to external stresses through a permanent increase in stiffness are uncommon. Here we report that polydomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers increase in stiffness by up to ...

Unlike traditional pressure sensitive adhesives, the natural setal arrays of gecko lizards achieve dry adhesion with stiff, keratinous material. This remarkable property has inspired a new class of adhesive and high friction microstructures composed of stiff materials that, like natural setae, have an elastic modulus greater than 1 GPa. In contrast to softer materials, such as rubber and low mo...

Despite recent advances to control the spatial composition and dynamic functionalities of bacteria embedded in materials, bacterial localization into complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries remains a major challenge. We demonstrate a 3D printing approach to create bacteria-derived functional materials by combining the natural diverse metabolism of bacteria with the shape design freedom of add...

INTRODUCTION Bioresorbable polymers are often used in medical procedures. Since they are biocompatible, this class of materials is a viable alternative for cases in which tissue regeneration is strongly compromised. Bioresorbable synthetic polymers may be used as membranes to support and guide cell growth through the process of tissue repair. OBJECTIVE To assess the efficiency of a porous bio...

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used in implantable medical devices; however, PDMS is not a completely biocompatible material for electronic medical devices in the bladder. To identify novel biocompatible materials for intravesical implanted medical devices, we evaluated the biocompatibility of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) by analyzing changes in the levels of macrophages, macrophage migratory...

Biocompatible synthetic polymers are largely used in the bio-medical domain, tissue engineering and in controlled release of medicines. Polymers can be used in the achievement of cardiac and vascular devices, mammary implants, eye lenses, surgical threads, nervous conduits, adhesives, blood substitutes, etc. Our study was axed on the development of cytotoxicity tests for 3 synthetic polymers, n...

Metallic Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are highly suitable for medical applications as biocompatible and biodegradable implant materials. Magnesium has mechanical properties similar to bone, stimulates bone regeneration, is an essential non-toxic element for the human body and degrades completely within the body environment. In consequence, magnesium is a promising candidate as implant material...

in this paper, the focus is on a new kind of biodegradable semi-interpenetrating polymer networks, which derived from ɛ-caprolactone, lactide, 1,4-butane diisocyanate and ethylenediamine and also its potential has been investigated in soft tissue engineering applications. the polymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) spectrometry, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (f...