Advances in apoptosis induced by biomaterials / 生物医学工程学杂志

Biomedical materials are the biomaterials that, used in physiological system for diagnosis, treatment, plerosis or replacement of tissues and organs. Apoptosis, also known as PCD or ACD, is a normal physiological mechanism of cell in organism and a process of automatic cell death in which multicell organism modulates the development of organism and maintains the stability of internal environment. The human beings are able to understand the interaction between the material and organism at the molecular level due to the widely-used biomedical material and the development of material science, life science and biological technology. The research of that interaction is mainly focused on biocompatibility, while much attention has been drawn to the apoptosis induced by biomaterial concerning that apoptosis could be caused by inducing factor, and many therapies of diseases are closely related to inducing apoptosis. Based on the recent research advances of apoptosis in life science and the development of biomaterials, the pathways of apoptosis induced by biomaterials were reviewed; from the different views, the pathways of signal transduction of apoptosis include traditional pathway of signal transduction, the pathway of death receptor, and the pathway through mitochondrion. By the other way, the pathways of apoptosis caused by reactive oxygen species induced by biomaterials and apoptosis by affecting cell adhesion to biomaterials and so forth were discussed also. It indicates that the pathways to apoptosis due to biomaterials possess the characteristics of variety, intercrossing and multiplicity. It is essential for a research to inquire into the mechanism of apoptosis that is induced by biomaterials, and further into the manufacturing of biomaterials. This review is devoted to shedding light on the wide application of biomaterials in the therapy of human diseases, especially in the therapy of cancer that is closely related to apoptosis.

Research on endothelialization of artificial vascular grafts / 生物医学工程学杂志

Endothelialization of artificial vascular graft is considered as one of the most promising methods to improve its antithrombotic ability and long-term patency. Endothelialization of artificial vascular graft includes harvesting endothelial cells, choosing some materials with better compliance and seeding endothelial cells. The methods such as immobilization of extracellular matrix protein and growth factor to substrates, stimulation of chronic in vitro shear stress for endothelial cell retention on artificial vascular graft in bioactor, genetic modificatioin of ECs, and changes of electric charge of ECs are used to increase the adherence ability of endothelial cells. This paper reviews the process of endothelialization of artificial vascular graft and makes brief comments on the methods of endothelialization of artificial vascular graft.

Compatibility of a novel ethylenediamine modified polylactic acid with osteoblasts / 生物医学工程学杂志

Biocompatibility of a newly developed ethylenediamine modified poly (DL-latic acid) (EMPLA) with osteoblasts was investigated by means of cell morphology and cell proliferation. Films of PLA and EMPLA were made by solvent casting. Osteoblasts obtained from crania of neonatal Wistar rats were cultured on surfaces of PLA and EMPLA, with glass as control. The cell morphology was observed by phase contrast microscope and the cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay. The morphology observations revealed that the osteoblasts cultured on EMPLA spread wider than those on PLA, and much more cells were confluent on EMPLA, compared to those on PLA and glass. The growth curves showed the osteoblasts on EMPLA grew faster than did those on PLA and glass. The results exhibited that the biocompatibility of EMPLA with osteoblasts is better than that of PLA and glass, which suggested wide applications of EMPLA in biomedical area, especially in tissue engineering.