Engineering Citric Acid-Based Porous Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration.

Tissue engineering aims to develop scaffolds that are biocompatible and mimic the mechanical and biological properties of the target tissue as closely as possible. Here, we describe the fabrication and characterization of a biodegradable, elastomeric porous scaffold: poly(1,8-octanediol-co-citric acid) (POC) incorporated with nanoscale hydroxyapatite (HA). While this chapter focuses on the scaffold's potential for bone regeneration, POC can also be used in other tissue engineering applications requiring an elastomeric implant.

Peptide and antibody ligands for renal targeting: nanomedicine strategies for kidney disease.

The kidney is one of the body's main filtration organs, and hence, opportunity exists for designing nanomedicine that can naturally accumulate in the kidneys for renal diseases. In addition to traditional physiochemical properties for kidney accumulation, such as size and charge, synthesized nanoparticles can be conjugated with targeting ligands which further home the nanocarriers to cell types of interest. In this review, we highlight key studies that have shown success in utilizing peptide- or antibody-based ligands in nanoparticles to target the glomerulus, podocytes, or renal tubule cells in the kidney.

Targeting cell adhesion molecules with nanoparticles using in vivo and flow-based in vitro models of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of death worldwide; in addition to lipid dysfunction, chronic arterial wall inflammation is a key component of atherosclerosis. Techniques that target cell adhesion molecules, which are overexpressed during inflammation, are effective methods to detect and treat atherosclerosis. Specifically, research groups have identified vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule, and selectins (E-selectin and P-selectin) as correlated to atherogenesis.