Immunomodulatory biomaterials
Biomedical implants and tissue engineering methods are enabling technologies to improve or even restore the function of diseased organs. One of the biggest challenges to push this technology to clinical success is the lack of functional integration. A series of cellular and molecular events following biomaterial implantation poses multiple adverse host response.
Among the responses, inflammation is recognized as a crucial component influencing regeneration, hence immunomodulation or immuno-engineering has emerged as a potential solution to overcome this key challenge in regenerative medicine. The immune system has long been recognized to play a critical role in the host defence against pathogens, foreign bodies, and the tissue healing response following injury.
We are undertaking projects to control biomaterials’ degradation rate and pH values on macrophages’ activation. The clear trend is discovered that the rate of pH ion concentration generation in the degradable particles plays an important role for macrophages from inflammatory phenotype to pro-healing phenotype.
