The aim of the project was to widen and consolidate interdisciplinary interactions on the design and processing of novel medical products for soft tissue application and regeneration. Biomimetic scaffolds were designed and developed, able to mimic the morphology of native ECM and to distribute strain in a bioresponsive manner to signal seeded cells. The project focused on the development of porous bionanostructures with optimal biomechanical properties and with improved tissue-biomaterial interfacial integration. Microporous/nanoporous scaffolds and the biological activity of scaffolds, scaffolds nano- engineered able to guarantee high performance in terms of growth and cell adhesion to the soft tissues were achieved in the project.
Novel biopolymers were designed and synthesized, a set of well-characterized biopolymer-based fluids were prepared, and their equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase behaviour under flow was studied, to optimize formulation and processing conditions in nano- and micro-fabrication of biopolymer-based scaffold materials through electrospinning technique. The performance of scaffold materials were critically evaluated to fed back further optimization of biopolymer formulations and experiments.
