Wei-Cheng Yan

Coaxial electrohydrodynamic atomization: microparticles for drug delivery applications.

As cancer takes its toll on human health and well-being, standard treatment techniques such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy often fall short of ideal solutions. In particular, adverse side effects due to excess dosage and collateral damage to healthy cells as well as poor patient compliance due to multiple administrations continue to pose challenges in cancer treatment. Thus, the development of appropriately engineered drug delivery systems (DDS) for effective, controlled and sustained delivery of drugs is of interest for patient treatment. Moreover, the physiopathological characteristics of tumors play an essential role in the success of cancer treatment. Here, we present an overview of the application of double-walled microparticles for local drug delivery with particular focus on the electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) technique and its fabrication challenges. The review highlights the importance of a combination of experimental data and computational simulations for the design of an optimal delivery system.

Fabrication of ultrasound-responsive microbubbles via coaxial electrohydrodynamic atomization for triggered release of tPA

A single-step fabrication method, coaxial electrohydrodynamic atomization (CEHDA), was developed to synthesize drug-loaded microbubbles (MBs) for combination treatment of ischemic stroke. The bioactivity of therapeutic agent (tPA, tissue plasminogen activator) after preparation was evaluated, showing that CEHDA could be very promising method for producing MBs with therapeutic functions. The bubble performance and tPA release profiles were also examined by exposing the bubbles to 2MHz ultrasound of various intensities. The results showed that the mean diameter of tPA-loaded MBs was found to fluctuate about its original diameter when exposed to ultrasound and higher intensity ultrasound was more effective in triggering the burst of CEHDA MBs. High ultrasound-triggered bubble disintegration effectiveness in a short period (first 5min) fits well with the requirement of short ultrasound exposure time for human brain. Moreover, a numerical model was also applied to investigate the stability of the fabricated MBs in the bloodstream. It was found that MB dissolution time increased with initial radius, decreased with initial surface tension and increased with initial shell resistance but it was barely affected by the average excessive bloodstream pressure.

3D bioprinting of tissues and organs for regenerative medicine

&NA; 3D bioprinting is a pioneering technology that enables fabrication of biomimetic, multiscale, multi‐cellular tissues with highly complex tissue microenvironment, intricate cytoarchitecture, structure‐function hierarchy, and tissue‐specific compositional and mechanical heterogeneity. Given the huge demand for organ transplantation, coupled with limited organ donors, bioprinting is a potential technology that could solve this crisis of organ shortage by fabrication of fully‐functional whole organs. Though organ bioprinting is a far‐fetched goal, there has been a considerable and commendable progress in the field of bioprinting that could be used as transplantable tissues in regenerative medicine. This paper presents a first‐time review of 3D bioprinting in regenerative medicine, where the current status and contemporary issues of 3D bioprinting pertaining to the eleven organ systems of the human body including skeletal, muscular, nervous, lymphatic, endocrine, reproductive, integumentary, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and circulatory systems were critically reviewed. The implications of 3D bioprinting in drug discovery, development, and delivery systems are also briefly discussed, in terms of in vitro drug testing models, and personalized medicine. While there is a substantial progress in the field of bioprinting in the recent past, there is still a long way to go to fully realize the translational potential of this technology. Computational studies for study of tissue growth or tissue fusion post‐printing, improving the scalability of this technology to fabricate human‐scale tissues, development of hybrid systems with integration of different bioprinting modalities, formulation of new bioinks with tuneable mechanical and rheological properties, mechanobiological studies on cell‐bioink interaction, 4D bioprinting with smart (stimuli‐responsive) hydrogels, and addressing the ethical, social, and regulatory issues concerning bioprinting are potential futuristic focus areas that would aid in successful clinical translation of this technology.

3D bioprinting of skin tissue: From pre-processing to final product evaluation

&NA; Bioprinted skin tissue has the potential for aiding drug screening, formulation development, clinical transplantation, chemical and cosmetic testing, as well as basic research. Limitations of conventional skin tissue engineering approaches have driven the development of biomimetic skin equivalent via 3D bioprinting. A key hope for bioprinting skin is the improved tissue authenticity over conventional skin equivalent construction, enabling the precise localization of multiple cell types and appendages within a construct. The printing of skin faces challenges broadly associated with general 3D bioprinting, including the selection of cell types and biomaterials, and additionally requires in vitro culture formats that allow for growth at an air‐liquid interface. This paper provides a thorough review of current 3D bioprinting technologies used to engineer human skin constructs and presents the overall pipelines of designing a biomimetic artificial skin via 3D bioprinting from the design phase (i.e. pre‐processing phase) through the tissue maturation phase (i.e. post‐processing) and into final product evaluation for drug screening, development, and drug delivery applications.

Electrical Field Guided Electrospray Deposition for Production of Gradient Particle Patterns

Our previous work demonstrated the uniform particle pattern formation on the substrates using electrical field guided electrospray deposition. In this work, we reported for the first time the fabrication of gradient particle patterns on glass slides using an additional point, line, or bar electrode based on our previous electrospray deposition configuration. We also demonstrated that the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating could result in the formation of uniform particle patterns instead of gradient particle patterns on glass slides using the same experimental setup. Meanwhile, we investigated the effect of experimental configurations on the gradient particle pattern formation by computational simulation. The simulation results are in line with experimental observations. The formation of gradient particle patterns was ascribed to the gradient of electric field and the corresponding focusing effect. Cell patterns can be formed on the particle patterns deposited on PDMS-coated glass slides. The formed particle patterns hold great promise for high-throughput screening of biomaterial-cell interactions and sensing.