In cell or tissue engineering, it is essential to develop a support for cell-to-cell adhesion, which leads to the generation of cell sheets connected by extracellular matrix. Such supports must be hydrophobic and should result in a detachable cell sheet. A thermoresponsive support that enables the cultured cell sheet to detach using only a change in temperature could be an interesting alternati...

Thermoresponsive drug delivery systems are designed for the controlled and targeted release of therapeutic payload. These systems exploit hyperthermic temperatures (>39°C), which may be applied by some external means or due to an encountered symptom in inflammatory diseases such as cancer and arthritis. The objective of this paper was to provide some solid evidence in support of the hypothesis ...

Drug delivery devices based on nanocomposite membranes containing thermoresponsive nanogels and superparamagnetic nanoparticles have been demonstrated to provide reversible, on-off drug release upon application (and removal) of an oscillating magnetic field. We show that the dose of drug delivered across the membrane can be tuned by engineering the phase transition temperature of the nanogel, t...

The smart thermoresponsive coatings and surfaces that have been explicitly designed for cell culture are mostly based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). This polymer is characterized by a sudden precipitation on heating, switching from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic state. Mammalian cells cultured on such thermoresponsive substrates can be recovered as confluent cell sheets, while keepin...

Two thermoresponsive polymers based on alkyl modified poly-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) that exhibit very sensitive and reversible temperature-dependant water solubility are described. The application of these polymers as Au nanocatalyst stabilizers leads to a "smart" thermoresponsive Au nanoparticle catalyst.

Preparation and characterization of thermoresponsive in-situ forming poloxamer hydrogel for controlled release of Nile red-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles. Nanoparticles (NPs) are cleared rapidly from systemic circulation and do not provide sustained action in most cases. To solve this problem, this investigation introduces an erodible in-situ forming gel system as potential vehicles for prolo...

Thermoresponsive polymers are a class of “smart” materials that have the ability to respond to a change in temperature; a property that makes them useful materials in a wide range of applications and consequently attracts much scientific interest. This review focuses mainly on the studies published over the last 10 years on the synthesis and use of thermoresponsive polymers for biomedical appli...