Polymer membranes have been widely used in guided tissue regeneration (GTR) and guided bone regeneration (GBR). In this review, various commercially available membranes are described. Much attention is paid to the recent development of biodegradable polymers applied in GTR and GBR, and the important issues of biodegradable polymeric membranes, including their classification, latest experimental research and clinical applications, as well as their main challenges are addressed. Herein, natural polymers, synthetic polymers and their blends are all introduced. Pure polymer membranes are biodegradable and biocompatible, but they lack special properties such as antibacterial properties, osteoconductivity, and thus polymer membranes loaded with functional materials such as antibacterial agents and growth factors show many more advantages and have also been introduced in this review. Despite there still being complaints about polymer membranes, such as their low mechanical properties, uncontrollable degradation speed and some other drawbacks, these problems will undoubtedly be conquered and biodegradable polymers will have more applications in GTR and GBR.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is widely used in bone tissue engineering for its bioactivity and biocompatibility, and a growing number of researchers are exploring ways to improve the physical properties and biological functions of hydroxyapatite. Up to now, HA has been used as inorganic building blocks for tissue engineering or as nanofillers to blend with polymers, furthermore, various methods such as ion doping or surface modification have been also reported to prepare functionalized HA. In this review, we try to give a brief and comprehensive introduction about HA-based materials, including ion-doped HA, HA/polymer composites and surface modified HA and their applications in bone tissue engineering. In addition, the prospective of HA is also discussed. This review may be helpful for researchers to get a general understanding about the development of hydroxyapatite based materials.

Novel composites based on cubic binary nickel cobaltite oxide intimately standing on nitrogen doped reduced graphene sheets (NRGO–NiCoO₂) were prepared by a simple one step hydrothermal synthesis. The results showed that the highly crystalline NiCoO₂ nanoparticles with a uniform size were homogeneously distributed on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene sheets (NRGO). The homogeneous composites combined NiCoO₂, which has high specific capacitance, and NRGO, which has efficient electronic conductivity, to consequently yield low resistance conduction between metal oxides and graphene due to a barrier-free contact. The synergistic effect of NRGO substrates and NiCoO₂ nanoparticles promoted the electrochemical performance of the composites. The electrochemical properties of NRGO–NiCoO₂ can be easily tuned by altering the amount of nitrogen-composed reducer. The NRGO–NiCoO₂ composites exhibited a remarkable specific capacitance of 508 F g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹, an excellent rate performance in cyclic voltammetry test (from 5 to 90 mV s⁻¹) and good galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements (from 0.5 to 20 A g⁻¹). The capacitance was maintained at 93% of the original value even after 2000 cycles. The flexible devices were assembled, which possessed a specific capacitance of 58 F g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹. This facile one-step strategy is an effective method for developing excellent supercapacitor electrodes.

Conventional photothermal therapy (PTT) irradiates the tumor tissues by elevating the temperature above 48 °C to exert thermal ablation, killing tumor cells. However, thermal ablation during PTT harmfully damages the surrounding normal tissues, post-treatment inflammatory responses, rapid metastasis due to the short-term mass release of tumor-cellular contents, or other side effects. To circumvent this limitation, mild-temperature photothermal therapy (MTPTT) was introduced to replace PTT as it exerts its activity at a therapeutic temperature of 42–45 °C. However, the significantly low therapeutic effect comes due to the thermoresistance of cancer cells as MTPTT figures out some of the side-effects issues. Herein, our current review suggested the mechanism and various strategies for improving the efficacy of MTPTT. Especially, heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones overexpressed in tumor cells and implicated in several cellular heat shock responses. Therefore, we introduced some methods to inhibit activity, reduce expression levels, and hinder the function of HSPs during MTPTT treatment. Moreover, other strategies also were emphasized, including nucleus damage, energy inhibition, and autophagy mediation. In addition, some therapies, like radiotherapy, chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy, exhibited a significant synergistic effect to assist MTPTT. Our current review provides a basis for further studies and a new approach for the clinical application of MTPTT.

Dental caries, a chronic and irreversible disease caused by caries-causing bacteria, has been listed as one of the three major human diseases to be prevented and treated. Therefore, it is critical to effectively stop the development of enamel caries. Remineralization treatment can control the progression of caries by inhibiting and reversing enamel demineralization at an early stage. In this process, functional materials guide the deposition of minerals on the damaged enamel, and the structure and hardness of the enamel are then restored. These remineralization materials have great potential for clinical application. In this review, advanced materials for enamel remineralization were briefly summarized, furthermore, an outlook on the perspective of remineralization materials were addressed.