Spiteri Chantelle, Caprettini Valeria, Chiappini Ciro
Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology, King's College London, London, UK.
Biomater Sci. 2020 Dec 15;8(24):6992-7013. doi: 10.1039/d0bm01485k.
Understanding, reproducing, and regulating the cellular and molecular processes underlying human embryogenesis is critical to improve our ability to recapitulate tissues with proper architecture and function, and to address the dysregulation of embryonic programs that underlies birth defects and cancer. The rapid emergence of stem cell technologies is enabling enormous progress in understanding embryogenesis using simple, powerful, and accessible in vitro models. Biomaterials are playing a central role in providing the spatiotemporal organisation of biophysical and biochemical signalling necessary to mimic, regulate and dissect the evolving embryonic niche in vitro. This contribution is rapidly improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying embryonic patterning, in turn enabling the development of more effective clinical interventions for regenerative medicine and oncology. Here we highlight how key biomaterial approaches contribute to organise signalling in human embryogenesis models, and we summarise the biological insights gained from these contributions. Importantly, we highlight how nanotechnology approaches have remained largely untapped in this space, and we identify their key potential contributions.
理解、重现和调控人类胚胎发育背后的细胞和分子过程，对于提高我们用合适的结构和功能重建组织的能力，以及解决导致出生缺陷和癌症的胚胎程序失调问题至关重要。干细胞技术的迅速兴起，正借助简单、强大且易于获取的体外模型，在理解胚胎发育方面取得巨大进展。生物材料在提供体外模拟、调控和剖析不断演变的胚胎微环境所需的生物物理和生化信号的时空组织方面发挥着核心作用。这一贡献正在迅速增进我们对胚胎模式形成机制的理解，进而推动再生医学和肿瘤学更有效临床干预措施的发展。在此，我们强调关键生物材料方法如何有助于在人类胚胎发育模型中组织信号传导，并总结从这些贡献中获得的生物学见解。重要的是，我们强调纳米技术方法在这一领域在很大程度上仍未得到充分利用，并确定了它们的关键潜在贡献。
