ZnO Nanostructures for Tissue Engineering Applications.

Marco Laurenti,Valentina Cauda

doi:10.3390/nano7110374

Abstract

This review focuses on the most recent applications of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures for tissue engineering. ZnO is one of the most investigated metal oxides, thanks to its multifunctional properties coupled with the ease of preparing various morphologies, such as nanowires, nanorods, and nanoparticles. Most ZnO applications are based on its semiconducting, catalytic and piezoelectric properties. However, several works have highlighted that ZnO nanostructures may successfully promote the growth, proliferation and differentiation of several cell lines, in combination with the rise of promising antibacterial activities. In particular, osteogenesis and angiogenesis have been effectively demonstrated in numerous cases. Such peculiarities have been observed both for pure nanostructured ZnO scaffolds as well as for three-dimensional ZnO-based hybrid composite scaffolds, fabricated by additive manufacturing technologies. Therefore, all these findings suggest that ZnO nanostructures represent a powerful tool in promoting the acceleration of diverse biological processes, finally leading to the formation of new living tissue useful for organ repair.

Highlights

Nowadays, smart biocompatible materials represent one of the most successful approaches in designing artificial scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) [1]
This review focuses on the most recent applications of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures for tissue engineering
The scaffold material should be resorbable or at least inert, depending on the specific application. All these aspects require the use of biocompatible materials, whose re-absorption in the body is governed by a degradation into non-toxic reaction products

Summary

Introduction

Smart biocompatible materials represent one of the most successful approaches in designing artificial scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) [1]. Thanks to the properties mentioned before, the successful regeneration of living tissues, coupled with antibacterial activity, has been demonstrated in vitro and in vivo, both for pure ZnO nanostructures [15,20] and 3D ZnO-based composite materials [17,18,19,21,22,23,24] Within this scope, this review highlights the most recent findings in the use of ZnO nanostructures for TE applications. The third paragraph will deal with the use of ZnO nanostructures as fillers in ceramic/polymeric composite systems, and their application to TE In both cases, i.e., pure ZnO rather than ZnO-based composites, the reviewed findings suggest that ZnO nanostructures may represent a key strategy in the development of new biomaterials with improved functionalities for the promotion of tissue regeneration

Zinc Oxide

Biocompatible and Antibacterial Properties of Pure ZnO Nanostructures

Bioactivity and Bone Tissue Regeneration Properties

Antibacterial Properties

Findings

Wound Healing Applications