Chapter 4
Three-Dimensional Macroporous
Nanoelectronics Scaffold Innervated
Synthetic Tissue
4.1 Introduction........................................
Functional synthetic 3D macroporous biomaterials as extracellular matrices (ECMs)
are crucial for areas ranging from biophysics to regenerative medicine because they
allow for studies of cell/tissue development in the presence of spatiotemporal
biochemical stimulants [ 1 – 6 ], and the understanding of pharmacological response
of cells within synthetic tissues models is expected to provide a more robust link to
in vivo disease treatment than that from 2D cell cultures [ 6 – 8 ]. Advancing further
such biomaterials requires capabilities for monitoring cells at single cell resolution
throughout the whole 3D microenvironment [ 6 ]. While electrical sensors are
attractive tools, it has not been possible to integrate such elements within bioma-
terials for real-time monitoring of cellular activities and physicochemical change
without interrupting interconnections among those cells. Such integration, if pos-
sible, could lead to new lab-on-a-chip pharmacological platforms [ 9 , 10 ] and hybrid
3D electronics-tissue materials for synthetic biology and prosthetics [ 11 , 12 ].
The emergence of flexible electronics has significantly advanced the
electronics-biology interface through the coupling of electronics and tissues using
flexible planar devices [ 13 – 17 ]. These planar devices have been used to probe
electrical activities near surfaces of various tissues through conform to nature tissue
surfaces [ 13 – 17 ]. However, a seamless 3D integration of suchflexible electronics
within 3D biomaterials and synthetic tissues has not been achieved. To be succeed,
it is important to implement a biomimetic design into electronics, which should
include following points: (1) the electronic structures must be macroporous, not
planar, to enable 3D interpenetration with biomaterials and cellular network; (2) the
electronic network should have nanometer to micrometer scale features comparable
to biomaterial scaffolds and cellular components; and (3) the electronic network
must have a 3D interconnectivity and (4) the electronic network must have
chemical and physical properties similar to biomaterials.
©Springer International Publishing AG 2018
J. Liu,Biomimetics Through Nanoelectronics, Springer Theses,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68609-7_4
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