Sharif Digital Repository

The goal of this research project was to prepare gelatin/PVA porous scaffolds by chemical and gamma irradiation methods to be used for human dermal fibroblast cell culture. First, the polymers were dissolved in hot water and mixed properly to achieve a homogenous solution. The mixture was then frozen at -200C and immersed in ethanol/ glutaraldehyde solution at -200C for 48 hours in order to extract ice crystals and also form chemical crosslinks in gelatin by glutaraldehyde. After being rinsed with distilled water the samples were lyophilized. The effects of polymers solution concentration, gelatin/PVA ratio and glutaraldehyde /gelatin ratio were investigated on characteristics of the... 

Wound healing by engineered scaffolds is a new step in bio-technology and medical studies in recent years. The goal of the current study is to propose a novel structure for a tissue-engineered scaffold to be used in wound healing. Influenced from the multi-layered structure of natural human skin, the fabricated scaffold consists of two layers to maximize similarity with natural skin. This product is comprised of an electrospun layer made of polycaprolactone and polyvinyl alcohol and a hydrogel layer made of chitosan and gelatin. In order to form a porous medium in the hydrogel layer, freeze-gelation was used instead of freeze drying. The evaluation of fabricated scaffolds was performed by... 

The accurate assessment of biomarkers likes proteins, hormones or other biomolecules that amount of them changes with state of disease or level of treatment and gives diagnostic information is a difficult duty. In these samples, pathogens exist in small quantity compared to other background molecules. Therefore, appropriate sampling process for concentrating and separating pathogens from the matrix should be developed in order to provide rapid and accurate pathogen detection test. In this thesis design and fabrication of microfluidic biosensors based on the modified nanofibrous membranes were investigated and explained. PES nanofibrous membrane with carboxyl functional groups for covalent... 

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is the most substantial mineral constituent of a bone which displays splendid biocompatibility and bioactivity properties. Nevertheless, its mechanical property is not utmost appropriate for a bone substitution. Therefore, a composite consist of HA and a biodegradable polymer is usually prepared to generate an apt bone scaffold. In the present work polycaprolactone (PCL), a newly remarkable biocompatible and biodegradable polymer, was employed as a matrix and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles and nanorods were used as a reinforcement element of the composite. HA/PCL nanocomposites were synthesized by three new in-situ sol-gel processes using a diverse range of phosphorus and... 

Skin tissue as the first protective barrier to the body is always exposed to the most injuries. The purpose of this project is to design an optimum skin scaffold capable of drug delivery for skin wounds healing. To this end, the skin scaffold has been considered as a combination of a hydrogel structure containing polymer microspheres carrying growth factor. Polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate polymers were utilized to make the hydrogel substrate. The hydrogel structure was optimized from the viewpoint of the percentage of gelation, water absorption, porosity, mechanical properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility and considering the volume percent of utilized polymers and the... 

The nervous system is the most important communication machine in body which regulates the function of other organs. Peripheral nerves in contrary to central nervous system have the potential for regeneration, but regrowth requires proper environmental conditions and supporting growth factors. Tissue engineered scaffolds create a suitable milieu for disconnected axon to regenerate. The aim of this study in the first stage is the fabrication of nanostructured of conductive polymers (graphene and polyaniline) within a bed of gelatin polymer and then conducting some analyses including conductance, degradation rate and tensile test besides morphological analyses of fibers through SEM and... 

In this study, differentiation of rabbit embryonic-derived mesenchymal stem cells to osteogenic cells has been characterized. Bone tissue engineering is based upon the understanding of bone tissue construct and it’s formation in-vivo, and the Preparation of tissue engineered bone constructs to repair large size defects is it’s major goal. We sought to investigate the combined effect of three elemnts of tissue engineering: cells, scaffolds and growth factors. Mesenchymal stem cells are unspecialized cells which due to their unlimited self-renewal capacity and the remarkable ability to differentiate along multiple linage pathways are natural choice for application in tissue repair and... 

In the current study, design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel conductive nanocomposite scaffold for nerve tissue engineering applications is reported. For this purpose, the highly conductive polyaniline/graphene nanocomposite (PAG) was synthesized via emulsion polymerization, used for fabrication of conductive chitosan/gelatin/PAG scaffolds, and the effect of PAG amount on the various properties of scaffolds were investigated. The synthesized graphene, polyaniline, and PAG were characterized and the obtained results revealed that partially exfoliated graphene nanosheets and highly conductive PAG with a conductivity of about 12 S.cm-1 and 7 S.cm-1, respectively were obtained. The... 

Nervous system plays an intricate biological process of man body.Damage of nervous system has serious consequences and is hard to recover, as well as the other parts of the body may not work properly. Many strategies have been used to repair spinal cord injuries in which the main objective is to improve the regeneration of axons and functional recovery. The purpose of this research is introducing neural tissue engineering concepts (e.g. scaffolds, stimulation and etc.) and also design and fabrication suitable for neural tissue engineering. For this purpose the combination of biodegradable polymers (chitosan),conductive polymer (poly-aniline) and carbon nanosheets (graphene) was chosen as the... 

Recently, the deficiency of methods like organ donation and medicine made tissue engineering a prospective method in regeneration of tissues. Despite all of its advantageous like any other method, it has its own weak points. Its major disadvantage is the probability of rejection by the host body. Using proper material and controlling synthesis reactions by researchers decreased the rejection of synthetic scaffolds. But in the case of natural scaffolds due to the range of properties, many tests should be applied on the scaffold prior to implantation in order to evaluate functionality in body. In this research, SDS and TritonX100 has been used to decellulize kidney. Then using uniaxial... 

Burns are one of the most important accidents related to human health. Due to the intense physical and mental complications and high fatality rate associated with them, receiving proper treatment is of paramount importance. The control of infection in wounds would cure and eliminates the effect of wounds and treatment of skin lesions with engineered scaffolds can be an effective method. The purpose of this project is proposing a hydrogel scaffold based on natural polymers of oxidized alginate and gelatin loaded with an herbal drug to control infection and treat burn wounds. For this purpose, the Iranian Oak extract that it's main content is Tanin and PolyPhenolinc materials, was prepared and... 

Poly (lactate-co-glycolate) is a typical biocompatible and biodegradable synthetic polymer. Addition of TiO2 nanoparticles improved compressive modulus of PLGA scaffolds and reduced fast degradation. Porous 3D scaffolds, which are synthesized using biocompatible and biodegradable materials, could provide suitable microenvironment and mechanical support for optimal cell growth and function. A novel method has been applied to fabricate PLGA/TiO2 scaffolds without using any organic solvent or porogen for nucleation compared to former ways, with aim of improving the biocompatibility, macroscale morphology and well inter-connected pores efficacy: Air-Liquid Foaming. Adjustment of the foaming... 

This study investigates the effect of titanium dioxide and magnesium oxide additives on hydroxyapatite synthesized by sol-gel and composite with the predominant phase of hydroxyapatite by in situ method to improve mechanical properties. Scaffold samples were synthesized with nanometer-sized hydroxyapatite and composite powder particles by gel casting and sintered at 1200 ° C. Then, to evaluate the synthesized powders, simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), X-ray diffraction test, FTIR test, FESEM, EDS, and MAP analysis were used. Also, to evaluate the mechanical properties of the scaffolds, a compressive test was used, and to evaluate the scaffolds' density, the Archimedes method was used.... 

Since its successful synthesis as single layer during the past decades, Graphene and its derivatives have been extensively employed by many researchers in various science and engineering fields. The studies to characterize and define graphene behaviour are still in demand to answer the questions around these structures. The unique feathures of graphene such as high strength, good conductivity, large available surface, intoxicity and biocompatibility, has made it a suitable candidate to used in novel structures and materials. In this work, hybrid structures made from graphene and carbon nanotubes are investigated which can be utilized as scaffolds in tissue engineering.After an introduction... 

Combined composites consisting of nanofibers and hydrogels were fabricated to grow cells in an environment that mimicked the extracellular matrix. Electrospan nanofibers were spun and hydrolyzed under optimized conditions consisting of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin and then incorporated into alginate and gelatin hydrogels. Nanofibril-containing (NF / hydrogel) hydrogel hybrids were ligated by calcium chloride in the presence of encapsulated beta cells. The mechanical properties of NF / hydrogel scaffolds were significantly increased in proportion to the NF content in NF / hydrogels. Beta cells killed in NF / hydrogels showed higher adhesion to the matrix compared to samples without NF.... 

Bone scaffolds are used to regenerate bone tissue and accelerate bone healing, for this purpose, an attempt was made to prepare biocompatible, biodegradable, low toxicity and non-allergenic scaffolds to help increase osteogenesis and improve bone infections. A porous multi-component composite of chitosan, hydroxyapatite, graphene oxide functionalized with silver was made to make the desired scaffolds. At first, graphene oxide was functionalized by silver ions using silver nitrate. The structure of silver graphene oxide nanocomposite was confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and ultraviolet (UV-Visible) spectroscopy. In the next step, a... 

In the last decade, mechanical metamaterials have attracted more attention due to new design principles that combine the concept of hierarchical architecture with material size effects at the micro or nano scale. This strategy shows extraordinary mechanical performance that we use in unknown parts of the material property space, including strength-to-density ratios, extraordinary flexibility, and the ability to absorb energy with brittle components. The aim of this research was to print metamaterial scaffolds from a combination of biocompatible and bioactive to be used as scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. In addition to the biological properties appropriate to the host tissue, the...