Tofu, spinach, ice... These ingredients can act as tissue stents in artificial organs

A recent academic review by researchers at Lowell University in Massachusetts explores the feasibility of using everyday materials such as eggshells, tofu and spinach as tissue stents"These natural-based traditional materials seem to be more functional, more sustainable and less costlyThe paper's author, DrGoulden, an associate professor at Lowell University in Massachusetts, believes that natural materials will be applicable in many areas of biomedical researchaccording to theAccording to authoritative statistics, more than 16,000 organ transplants were performed in China in 2017 and nearly 10,000 in the first half of 2018, an increase of 18% year-on-yearAlthough voluntary donation is still the only legal source of organ transplantation in China, with the maturity and progress of transplant technology, the demand for transplantation and restoration of organs continues to grow, and tissue engineering technology hopes to become a useful complement through synthetic methodsTherefore, a significant increase in the mobility of tissue stents is likely to solve the "bottleneck" problem for organ transplantationa "home" for transplanted functional cells
biomaterials are also a very important component of an organ that works in tissue engineering, in addition to the seed cells that function in life"single cell transplantation is not easy to live, nor is it 'grouped'"Professor Gu Hanqing of Tianjin Medical University, etc., in summing up the current situation of industrialization of tissue engineering technology, said that it is necessary to provide cell carriers and organizational structure stents for the construction of tissue engineering, so biomaterials are neededIn layman's terms, biomaterials are meant to build a "home" for transplanted functional cells, and even "home" to move in together, so that foreign cells have a support and dependence, and thus survive" tissue support and its materials are one of the most critical factors influencing organization buildingGu Hanqing introduced that biological materials provide a biological space for seed cells to suit their growth, matrix synthesis and other functions, overcoming the shortcomings of cell in individual transplantation cell is not easy to live, low matrix synthesis abilityBiomaterials commonly used in tissue engineering can be divided into natural materials and synthetic materials by source, and polymeric materials, bioceramics and biocomposites by their chemical compositionbecause of the implantation of the body, and even the core parts of the human body, so for the selection of tissue engineering biological materials, there are many demanding requirements, such as biodegradable, good biocompatibility, low immunogenicity and a certain spatial structure, porosity, degradation rate and other characteristics the chemical and physical properties of the surface of the stent material will have an effect on seed cells or growth factors, as well as the adhesion and proliferation of seed cells, and may also affect the function of seed cells or growth factors For example, collagen is a commonly used stent material, but due to the current use of heterogeneous collagen, there is a certain immune response problem, seed cells may have some effect With the ability to imitate nature's "ghost work" at the cellular molecular level, the third generation of tissue engineering biomaterials combine bioactive materials with the two independent concepts of biodegradable materials, and initiate the regeneration system of the body by molecular modification on biodegradable materials, inducing cell proliferation, differentiation, and even synthesis and assembly with extracellular matrix grow heart tissue on spinach bones
while mainstream innovations focus on molecular-level "synthetic" "re-engineering" and painstaking searches, another group of researchers has gone the other way, looking for more functional, sustainable, and less costly materials from everyday materials at their fingertips " some of the most recent organizational engineering techniques are relatively expensive, some of which may require long and cumbersome optimization procedures to generate these 3D brackets Goulden says a shift to nature is likely to be cost-effective and sustainable inspired by spinach's dense network of veins similar to the vascular network of the human heart, researchers at the Worcester Institute of Technology in the United States have tried to grow heart tissue on spinach bones by cleaning plant cells and leaving behind plant wall substrates, according to a variety of other natural materials are also being studied: tofu is used as a protein-rich stent to help woundhealing by promoting cell adhesion; by adding calcium-rich eggshells to strengthen stent materials to promote bone healing and nerve tissue regeneration; and some studies have inspired the construction of 3D paper stents to grow bone tissue from origami Goulden believes that the medical potential of eggshells has not been exploited until now, and he and his colleagues have used a new medium to grow new bone tissue using eggshells to help regenerate after bone trauma They have now experimented with mice and are likely to be used in the future to treat people with bone injuries, such as fractures Scientists will transplant new tissue at the site of damaged bone tissue, a new material that could speed up bone transplantation Goulden said the implantation of the bone cell gel mixture into rats found good compatibility and that bone cell matching from transplanted people could be used for treatment of human fractures Millions of tons of eggshell waste thrown away around the world each year will be used in another way Now, scientists are optimistic about the study of biomaterials that go back to nature, and significantly reducing costs is an irreplaceable advantage of these natural derivatives Not only for the source of organs "thirsty", but also greatly reduce the price of clinical use, will make organ transplantation widely used possible But the tissue re-engineering of the "garden wind" is still a long way from real clinical trials, and there is still a long way to go before standard protocols are established, biomaterials are validated, and patient safety is well established.