Eumelanins, the chief photoprotective pigments in man and mammals, owe their black color to an unusual broadband absorption spectrum whose origin is still a conundrum. Excitonic effects from the interplay of geometric order and disorder in 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI)-based oligomeric/polymeric structures play a central role, however the contributions of structural (scaffold-controlled) and redox ...

Polymeric fibrous scaffolds for guiding cell growth are designed to be potentially used for the tissue engineering (TE) of tubular organs including esophagi, blood vessels, tracheas, etc. Tubular scaffolds were fabricated via melt-drawing of highly elastic poly(l-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLC) fibers layer-by-layer on a cylindrical mandrel. The diameter and length of the scaffolds are customi...

We report on recent advances in the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine constructs using a two-photon polymerization technique (2PP). 2PP is a novel CAD/CAM technology allowing the fabrication of any computer-designed 3D structure from a photosensitive polymeric material. The flexibility of this technology and the ability to precisely...

A reduction in the degradation rate of magnesium (Mg) and its alloys is in high demand to enable these materials to be used in orthopedic applications. For this purpose, in this paper, a biocompatible polymeric layer reinforced with a bioactive ceramic made of polycaprolactone (PCL) and bioactive glass (BG) was applied on the surface of Mg scaffolds using dip-coating technique under low vacuum....

In this study, ionic immobilization of dexamethasone (DEX)-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres was performed on the hydroxyapatite (HAp) scaffold surfaces. It was hypothesized that in vivo bone regeneration could be enhanced with HAp scaffolds containing DEX-loaded PLGA microspheres compared to the use of HAp scaffolds alone. In vitro drug release from the encapsulated micr...

The study focuses on the synthesis of a novel polymeric scaffold having good porosity and mechanical characteristics synthesized by using natural polymers and their optimization for application in cartilage tissue engineering. The scaffolds were synthesized via cryogelation technology using an optimized ratio of the polymer solutions (chitosan, agarose and gelatin) and cross-linker followed by ...

neuroinflamation occurring after traumatic brain injury (tbi) is a complex phenomenon comprising distinct cellular and molecular events involving the injured cerebral tissue. mechanical injury to adult rat brain elucidated the accumulation in the affected area of trophic activity. in the tissue adjacent to the injury, trophic titers began to rise after the lesion. this study aimed to determine ...

Genome organization within the cell nucleus is a result of chromatin condensation achieved by histone tail-tail interactions and other nuclear proteins that counter the outward entropic pressure of the polymeric DNA. We probed the entropic swelling of chromatin driven by enzymatic disruption of these interactions in isolated mammalian cell nuclei. The large-scale decondensation of chromatin and...

Copying and counting are useful primitive operations for computation and construction. We have made DNA crystals that copy and crystals that count as they grow. For counting, 16 oligonucleotides assemble into four DNA Wang tiles that subsequently crystallize on a polymeric nucleating scaffold strand, arranging themselves in a binary counting pattern that could serve as a template for a molecula...