A well-engineered scaffold for regenerative medicine, which is suitable to be translated from the bench to the bedside, combines inspired design, technical innovation and precise craftsmanship. Electrospinning and additive manufacturing are separate approaches to manufacturing scaffolds for a variety of tissue engineering applications. A need to accurately control the spatial distribution of pores within scaffolds has recently resulted in combining the two processing methods, to overcome shortfalls in each technology. This review describes where electrospinning and additive manufacturing are used together to generate new porous structures for biological applications.

Melt electrospinning in a direct writing mode is a recent additive manufacturing approach to fabricate porous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. In this study, we describe porous and cell-invasive poly (ε-caprolactone) scaffolds fabricated by combining melt electrospinning and a programmable x-y stage. Fibers were 7.5 ± 1.6 µm in diameter and separated by interfiber distances ranging from 8 to 133 µm, with an average of 46 ± 22 µm. Micro-computed tomography revealed that the resulting scaffolds had a highly porous (87%), three-dimensional structure. Due to the high porosity and interconnectivity of the scaffolds, a top-seeding method was adequate to achieve fibroblast penetration, with cells present throughout and underneath the scaffold. This was confirmed histologically, whereby a 3D fibroblast-scaffold construct with full cellular penetration was produced after 14 days in vitro. Immunohistochemistry was used to confirm the presence and even distribution of the key dermal extracellular matrix proteins, collagen type I and fibronectin. These results show that melt electrospinning in a direct writing mode can produce cell invasive scaffolds, using simple top-seeding approaches.

Cancer metastasis is the dissemination of tumor cells to new sites, resulting in the formation of secondary tumors. This process is complex and is spatially and temporally regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. One important extrinsic factor is the extracellular matrix, the non-cellular component of tissues. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are constituents of the extracellular matrix, and through their heparan sulfate chains and protein core, modulate multiple events that occur during the metastatic cascade. This review will provide an overview of the role of the extracellular matrix in the events that occur during cancer metastasis, primarily focusing on perlecan. Perlecan, a basement membrane HSPG is a key component of the vascular extracellular matrix and is commonly associated with events that occur during the metastatic cascade. Its contradictory role in these events will be discussed and we will highlight the recent advances in cancer therapies that target HSPGs and their modifying enzymes.

There is a vast number of treatments on the market for the management of wounds and burns, representing a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. These include conventional wound dressings, dressings that incorporate growth factors to stimulate and facilitate the wound healing process, and skin substitutes that incorporate patient-derived cells. This article will review the more established, and the recent advances in the use of biomaterials for wound healing therapies, and their future direction.

Key events that occur during inflammation include the recruitment, adhesion, and transmigration of leukocytes from the circulation to the site of inflammation. These events are modulated by chemokines, integrins, and selectins and the interaction of these molecules with glycosaminoglycans, predominantly heparan sulfate (HS). The development of HS/heparin mimetics that interfere or inhibit the interactions that occur between glycosaminoglycans and modulators of inflammation holds great potential for use as anti-inflammatory therapeutics. This review will detail the role of HS in the events that occur during inflammation, their interaction and modulation of inflammatory mediators, and the current advances in the development of HS/heparin mimetics as anti-inflammatory biotherapeutics.