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Nanotechnology for regenerative medicine

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Abstract

Future biomaterials must simultaneously enhance tissue regeneration while minimizing immune responses and inhibiting infection. While the field of tissue engineering has promised to develop materials that can promote tissue regeneration for the entire body, such promises have not become reality. However, tissue engineering has experienced great progress due to the recent emergence of nanotechnology. Specifically, it has now been well established that increased tissue regeneration can be achieved on almost any surface by employing novel nano-textured surface features. Numerous studies have reported that nanotechnology accelerates various regenerative therapies, such as those for the bone, vascular, heart, cartilage, bladder and brain tissue. Various nano-structured polymers and metals (alloys) have been investigated for their bio (and cyto) compatibility properties. This review paper discusses several of the latest nanotechnology findings in regenerative medicine (also now called nanomedicine) as well as their relative levels of success.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Coulter Foundation for funding some of the above mentioned research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Dongwoo Khang, Joseph Carpenter, Young Wook Chun & Rajesh Pareta

  2. Division of Engineering and Department of Orthopaedics, Brown University, 184 Hope Street, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Thomas J. Webster

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  1. Dongwoo Khang
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  2. Joseph Carpenter
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  3. Young Wook Chun
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  4. Rajesh Pareta
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Correspondence to Thomas J. Webster.

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Khang, D., Carpenter, J., Chun, Y.W. et al. Nanotechnology for regenerative medicine. Biomed Microdevices 12, 575–587 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-008-9264-6

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