The significance of three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting in the domain of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering is readily apparent.

4D hydrogels mimic anisotropic tissue composition due to non-uniform distribution of internal stresses within them. Herein, we discuss the strategies used to fabricate programmable hydrogels in response to environmental cues for biomedical applications.

The current study investigated the renoprotective effects of stevia, angiotensin-II type 1 receptor (AT1) blocker and calcium (Ca2+) channel blocker in gentamycin-induced nephrotoxicity in rat models. Six groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats of eight weeks old were taken for the experiment: sham control, nephrotoxicity, treatment with amlodipine (4 mg/kg/day); stevia (200 mg/kg/day); losartan (15 mg/kg/day) and valsartan (5 mg/kg/day), accordingly. The blood sample was taken for the assessment of renal and hepatic-functional variables like serum creatinine, blood urea, BUN and SGPT, SGOT, and total serum bilirubin. Hematological parameters were also examined. Histological examination has been done on kidneys and liver. Alterations of the body weight and the organ's weight were documented. Treatment with stevia and valsartan significantly decreased serum creatinine levels. A reduction of liver enzymes, and total serum bilirubin levels were observed in all the treatment groups. Treatment with valsartan and amlodipine, remarkably and stevia, mildly reduced the renal tissue damage, inflammation, and tubular necrosis. However, the present study demonstrated that losartan treatment aggravated kidney damage by increasing protein cast, calcification, tubular necrosis, and injury. This comparison indicated that both stevia and valsartan have beneficial renoprotective effect and valsartan offers a better treatment option in renal damage over losartan.

Four-dimensional (4D) printing of hydrogels enabled the fabrication of complex scaffold geometries out of static parts.

Controlled release delivery system of chemotherapeutic agents at the site of colon endorses modern drug-entrappeddelivery tools, which release the entrappedagents at a controlled rate for anextended period providing patient complianceand additional protection from the degradinggastric environment. Thus, the present study was aimed to developand optimize a novel polymeric microsphere of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) using natural gum katira to obtain an optimaltherapeutic response at the colon. Due course of experimentation, in-vivo safety profile of the gum katira in an animalmodel was established. Modified solvent extraction/evaporation technique wasemployed to encapsulate 5-FU in thenatural polymeric microsphere and was characterized using in-vitro studies to investigate particle size, morphology,encapsulation efficiency and release of the drug from developed formulation. Formulated and optimized polymericmicrosphere of 5-FU using gum katira polymer own optimal physicochemical characteristics with a fine spherical particlewith size ranged from 210.37±7.50 to 314.45±7.80 μm.Targeted microsphere exhibited good cytotoxicity and also hashigh drug entrapment efficiency, and satisfactory release pattern of the drug within a time frame of 12 h. Finally, weforesee that the optimized polymeric gum katiramicrosphere of 5-FU could be a promising micro-carrier for efficientcolon drug targeting delivery tool with improved chemotherapeutic efficacy against colon cancer.