Fumed silica nanoparticle mediated biomimicry for optimal cell-material interactions for artificial organ development

Replacement of irreversibly damaged organs due to chronic disease, with suitable tissue engineered implants is now a familiar area of interest to clinicians and multidisciplinary scientists. Ideal tissue engineering approaches require scaffolds to be tailor made to mimic physiological environments of interest with specific surface topographical and biological properties for optimal cell-material interactions. This study demonstrates a single-step procedure for inducing biomimicry in a novel nanocomposite base material scaffold, to re-create the extracellular matrix, which is required for stem cell integration and differentiation to mature cells. Fumed silica nanoparticle mediated procedure of scaffold functionalization, can be potentially adapted with multiple bioactive molecules to induce cellular biomimicry, in the development human organs. The proposed nanocomposite materials already in patients for number of implants, including world first synthetic trachea, tear ducts and vascular bypass graft.