Nanotechnology meets 3D in vitro models: tissue engineered tumors and cancer therapies.

Advances in nanotechnology are providing to medicine a new dimension. Multifunctional nanomaterials with diagnostics and treatment modalities integrated in one nanoparticle or in cooperative nanosystems are promoting new insights to cancer treatment and diagnosis. The recent convergence between tissue engineering and cancer is gradually moving towards the development of 3D disease models that more closely resemble in vivo characteristics of tumors. However, the current nanomaterials based therapies are accomplished mainly in 2D cell cultures or in complex in vivo models. The development of new platforms to evaluate nano-based therapies in parallel with possible toxic effects will allow the design of nanomaterials for biomedical applications prior to in vivo studies. Therefore, this review focuses on how 3D in vitro models can be applied to study tumor biology, nanotoxicology and to evaluate nanomaterial based therapies.

Neuronal cells' behavior on polypyrrole coated bacterial nanocellulose three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds.

In this work, polypyrrole (PPy) was in situ polymerized onto the surface of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinus, by chemical oxidation in aqueous medium using ammonium persulfate. Composites (BNC/PPy) were produced with varying concentrations of pyrrole (Py). The produced BNC/PPy membranes were used as a template for the seeding of PC12 rat neuronal cells. Cell suspensions were directly seeded onto the surfaces of the BNC/PPy membranes. The Py concentration affected the behavior of neuronal cells that adhered and grew significantly more on BNC/PPy comparatively to BNC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs revealed that PC12 cells adhered on the surface of the BNC and BNC/PPy membranes. Conductive PPy coatings on nanofibers acting as an active interface for tissue engineering may be used to regulate cell activity through electrical stimulations.