Integrating mechanical and biological control of cell proliferation through bioinspired multieffector materials

In nature, cells respond to complex mechanical and biological stimuli whose understanding is required for tissue construction in regenerative medicine. However, the full replication of such bimodal effector networks is far to be reached. Engineering substrate roughness and architecture allows regulating cell adhesion, positioning, proliferation, differentiation and survival, and the external supply of soluble protein factors (mainly growth factors and hormones) has been long applied to promote growth and differentiation. Further, bioinspired scaffolds are progressively engineered as reservoirs for the in situ sustained release of soluble protein factors from functional topographies. We review here how research progresses toward the design of integrative, holistic scaffold platforms based on the exploration of individual mechanical and biological effectors and their further combination.