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

ABSTRACT

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.