José Domingos

By Tiago Pereira, Andrea Gärtner, Irina Amorim, Paulo Armada-da- Silva, Raquel Gomes, Cátia Pereira, Miguel L. França, Diana M. Morais, Miguel A. Rodrigues, Maria A. Lopes, José D. Santos, Ana Lúcia Luís and Ana Colette Maurício

Part of the book: Advances in Biomaterials Science and Biomedical Applications

By A.R. Caseiro, T. Pereira, P.J. Bártolo, J.D. Santos, A.L. Luís and A. C. Maurício

Skeletal muscle injuries are quite frequent in traumatic scenarios, such as war injuries or road- or work-related accidents. The skeletal muscle has good regenerative ability, but the extent or recurrence of muscle injury might impair complete structural and functional recovery. Severe tissue loss overwhelms skeletal muscle´s intrinsic regenerative capabilities and culminates in the development of noncontractile fibrous tissue scar. Conservative RICE -based and surgical treatments show limited efficacy in terms of improving these severe cases outcomes, pressing the need for new approaches on skeletal muscle’s therapy. Since the first suggestions of the potential of mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, many applications have been explored for a variety of tissues and diseases, including the skeletal muscle, which is the focus of this literature review.

Part of the book: Progress in Stem Cell Transplantation

By Sílvia Santos Pedrosa, Ana Rita Caseiro, José Domingos Santos and Ana Colette Maurício

Human adult peripheral nerve injuries are a high incidence clinical problem that greatly affects patients’ quality of life. Although peripheral nervous system has intrinsic regenerative capacity, this occurs in an incomplete or poorly functional manner. When a nerve fiber loses its continuity with consequent damage of the basal lamina tubes, axon spontaneous regeneration is disorganized and mismatched. These phenomena translate in an inadequate nerve functional recovery and consequent musculoskeletal incapacity. Nerve grafts still remain the gold standard in peripheral injuries treatment. However, this approach contains its disadvantages such as the necessity of primary surgery to harvest the autografts, loss of a functional nerve, donor site morbidity and longer surgery procedures. Therefore, biomaterials and tissue engineering can provide efficient resources and alternatives to nerve injury repair not only by the development of biocompatible structures but also, introducing neurotrophic factors and cellular systems to stimulate optimum clinical outcome. In this chapter, a comprehensive state-of-the art picture of tissue-engineered nerve grafts scaffolds, their application in nerve regeneration along with latest advances in peripheral nerve repair and future perspectives will be discussed, including our own large experience in this field of knowledge.

Part of the book: Materials, Technologies and Clinical Applications

By Pedro Olivério Pinho, José Miguel Campos, Carla Mendonça, Ana Rita Caseiro, José Domingos Santos, Ana Colette Maurício and Luís Miguel Atayde

Autogenous cancellous bone is the most effective material in promoting rapid healing and still considered the “gold standard” for evaluation of bone graft substitutes. The harvesting process to collect autologous bone is associated with complications and its availability is limited. Allogenic bone is another alternative with osteoconductive properties, and it act as a structural graft when applied in defects of long bones, but some disadvantages are also associated. The development of the bone grafts substitutes has gained tremendous popularity over the last two decades. Osteoconductive materials act as scaffolds were cells from the surrounding tissues with osteogenic capacities can lay new bone, and may be produced using different types of agents, such as bone products, ceramics, bioactive glasses, collagen, polymers, and composites. Bonelike® is produced by the incorporation of P2O5–CaO glass-based system within a hydroxyapatite matrix. Bonelike® Poro consists of polygonal granules with 2000–2800 μm and 4000–5600 μm of diameter with pore sizes range from 100 to 400 μm. This chapter will focus on the different techniques were this ceramic synthetic bone substitute was used to promote bone regeneration with special attention in both experimental and clinical cases of veterinary orthopaedics in dogs and cats, horses and ruminants, including results obtained with Bonelike®.

Part of the book: Materials, Technologies and Clinical Applications

By Daniel Santos, Ana Colette Maurício, Vitor Sencadas, José Domingos Santos, Maria H. Fernandes and Pedro S. Gomes

Spray drying is a well-known method of particle production which comprises the transformation of a fluid material into dried particles, taking advantage of a gaseous hot drying medium, with clear advantages for the fabrication of medical devices. In fact, it is quite common the production of microspheres and microcapsules designed for drug delivery systems. This review describes the different stages of the mechanism of the spray-drying process: atomization, droplet-to-particle conversion and particle collection. In particular, this work addresses the diversity of available atomizers, the drying kinetics and the importance of the configuration of the drying chamber, and the efficiency of the collection devices. The final properties of the dried products are influenced by a variety of factors, namely the spray dryer design, the feed characteristics and the processing parameters. The impact of those variables in optimizing both the spray-drying process and the synthesis of dried particles with desirable characteristics is discussed. The scalability of this manufacturing process in obtaining dried particles in submicron-to-micron scale favors a variety of applications within the food, chemical, polymeric, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical industries.

Part of the book: Biomaterials