Por Mariana Oliveira (ICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Portugal).
The pursuit for the most efficient (bio)materials to regenerate or promote the formation of new tissues has been widely addressed for the last decades in the field of bioengineering and tissue regeneration. Soft matter, mostly based on polymeric materials, has enabled the fabrication of cell culture platforms that closely mimic the mechanical and viscoelastic properties of soft tissues. Instead of the use of polymers, a more recent trend makes use of cells to build biomaterials, often with high adaptability, given that in most cases cells are used as living units. Cells interact with the surrounding tissues by direct binding to other cells and extracellular matrix, and also through the secretion of soluble and vesicular fractions (Sousa et al., Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2021). We have proved the ability of cells to assemble into centimeter-long fibers, with high flexibility and ability to invade surrounding tissues (Sousa et al., Advanced Materials 2020). The use of living cells as regenerative units is not free of risks: cells may migrate to unwanted locations and mount unexpected responses to the surrounding environment. Recently, we suggested the assembly of living cells, pre-conditioned in vitro using different protocols, to prepare highly stable three-dimensional biomaterials (Sousa et al., Advanced Materials, 2024). For that, cells were fixed using a classic protocol based on dehydration. Such devitalized biomaterials showed anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity, even with cells in a non-living state. In this talk, I will present our work on cell-based materials and their biological performance.
