Tissue engineering is a promising approach to repair damaged or diseased tissues.

1. Faculty of Bioengineering
Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences
Center for Research and Engineering on Biomaterials
UCLouvain
From the design of smart surfaces
to tissue engineering
Christine Dupont-Gillain

2. Life expectancy increases continuously
100
survival rate (%)
80
1940 2006
60 1901
40
20
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
age (years)
data for USA, http://www.cdc.gov

3. More and more spare
parts are needed

4. Shortage of donors and
secondary effects restrict
the use of transplantation

5. Artificial devices
have a limited lifetime
and do not adapt
to the host organism

6. Tissue engineering relies on the use of living cells
to replace, repair or regenerate damaged tissues

7. Cells can be seeded
in a biodegradable scaffold

9. Self-standing cell sheets are an alternative to scaffolds

10. Cell growth is
anchorage-dependent

11. Trypsin-induced cell release
disrupts cell-cell junctions
trypsin and the extracellular matrix

12. Can we keep cell sheets intact ?
?

13. The properties of smart systems
change when applying a stimulus

14. PNIPAM is a thermoresponsive polymer
showing a transition temperature
close to physiological conditions
~30°C

15. PNIPAM can be immobilised at interfaces
~30°C

16. Intact cell sheets
grown on PNIPAM
can be harvested
by decreasing temperature
37°C
20°C

17. Cell sheets can potentially be used
for tissue engineering
Yang et al., 2005

18. Cornea can be regrown from
oral mucosal cells seeded
on PNIPAM
Sutureless transplantation is possible
owing to intact extracellular matrix
acting as a glue
Yang et al., 2007

19. 100
survival rate (%)
80
60
We need spare parts
40
20
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
age (years)
Tissue engineering relies on the use
of cells to produce functional tissues
Smart surfaces can be designed
to allow intact cell sheets
to be harvested,
opening perspectives
in tissue engineering