Engineering of Human Tissues and Implants

This text presents information on biological control systems, mechanotransduction, tissue structure, and function, as well as properties that can be integrated together to provide improved implant and device designs. This information is needed to develop new diagnostic tests and instruments that provide early diagnostic tests and treatments for diseases.

Engineering of Human Tissues and Implants: An Evolutionary Approach to Implant Design provides basic scientific information on the evolutionary design of tissues and organs that are a result of living in a gravitational field. Much of the useful information that is available for the design of implants is based on tissue structure and function derived from light and electron microscopy observations. However, this information is not enough for developing new designs of implants and medical devices since much of the biological response to implants is based on understanding the biological control systems and mechanotransduction that drive many of the responses seen with implanted devices. The book also introduces mechanotransduction as it relates to implant design with an overview of materials and their use in applications that include those materials designed to treat wounds, burns, facial, hernial, ophthalmic, oral, cardiovascular, and tendon/ligaments.

This book is intended for biomedical science and engineering students who are learning about artificial implants and medical device development. It will also be of significance to other engineering majors interested in the design of devices for diagnoses and measuring of physiological parameters, as well as to clinicians and researchers who are interested in mechanobiology.

Dr. Frederick H. Silver is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He did his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering at M.I.T. with Dr. Ioannis Yannas, the inventor of the Integra artificial skin, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Developmental Medicine at Mass General Hospital in Boston, MA with Dr. Robert L. Trelstad, a connective tissue pathologist. US and European patents have been granted on VOCT to Rutgers on vibrational evaluation of materials and tissues. The issued patent has been licensed to OptoVibronex, LLC. a startup company co-founded by Dr. Silver and Lisa Silver. This technology can be used to provide a non-invasive “virtual biopsy” of tissues including skin cancers and ocular tissues. His interests include the structure and properties of extracellular matrix in health and diseases and mechanobiology. Dr. Silver has published over 250 peer reviewed scientific papers and has over 20 patents issued and pending. He is a section editor for Biomaterials for the MDPI Journal Biomolecules.