A paradigm shift is taking place in medicine from using synthetic implants and tissue grafts to a tissue engineering approach that uses degradable porous material scaffolds integrated with biological cells or molecules to regenerate tissues. This new paradigm requires scaffolds that balance temporary mechanical function with mass transport to aid biological delivery and tissue regeneration. Lit...

The discipline of tissue engineering opens up the ways for repair and regenerate damaged organs and tissues. In the current work biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning. Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) was blended with collagen and gelatin to fabricate PLLLA-collagen and PLLA-gelatin fibrous scaffolds respectively. Pure PLLA and gelatin scaffolds served as controls. All th...

Locally oriented tissue engineering scaffolds can provoke cellular orientation and direct cell spread and migration, offering an exciting potential way for the regeneration of the complex tissue. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) scaffolds with locally oriented hydrophilic polyacrylamide (PAM) inside the macropores of the scaffolds were achieved through UV graft polymerization...

Tissue engineering techniques using novel scaffold materials offer potential alternatives for managing tendon disorders. Tissue engineering strategies to improve tendon repair healing include the use of scaffolds, growth factors, cell seeding, or a combination of these approaches. Scaffolds have been the most common strategy investigated to date. Available scaffolds for tendon repair include bo...

Porous oligolactide-hydroxyapatite composite scaffolds were obtained by stereolithographic fabrication. Gentamicin was then coated on the scaffolds afterwards, to achieve antimicrobial delivery ability to treat bone infection. The scaffolds examined by stereomicroscope, SEM, and μCT-scan showed a well-ordered pore structure with uniform pore distribution and pore interconnectivity. The physical...

Controlled-rate freezing (CRF) of biopolymer scaffolds may increase reproducibility of microstructure compared with analog processes. Freezing of collagen-glycosaminoglycan (CG) scaffolds by CRF with liquid nitrogen at chamber cooling rates of -80, -40, -20, or -10°C/min, was compared with submersion in 95% ethanol at -55°C. Cooling rates of -80 or -40°C/min generated scaffolds with pore areas ...

Carboxymethyl cellulose, a water-soluble cellulose derivative, has been used extensively as a biomaterial for wound healing and pharmacological applications. It is a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer but its poor stability, limits its long-term application. In this study, carboxymethyl cellulose scaffolds were prepared at different concentrations (2.5 wt% and 5.0 wt%) by freeze drying met...

This study problematizes the common methodology in studies on excessive internet use where psychological characteristics are sought as unique predictors of negative outcomes. It suggests that some predictors may be significant only by virtue of being examined in isolation. In an attempt to add to this methodology the present study explored motivations for a particular online activity, MMO gamin...

The perception of biomedical achievements in the last century has led most Westerners and those in the rest of the world under the influence of Western scientific culture, to assume that their own representations of disease and of its causes are the most authentic, the «truest», on the assumption that such representations are the culmination of an historical process through which modern medical...

The biannual Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) conference in Arusha is a science policy event where ideas about conservation science and practice in Tanzania and beyond are exchanged. At the 2015 conference, I learned through event ethnography (Brosius & Campbell 2010) how the paradigmatic crisis narrative of the so-called war on poaching shaped debates and created a sense of urgenc...