Course syllabus for Cell and tissue interactions with biomaterials

• Describe the key components of the tissue-material interface.
• Describe key properties of surfaces, proteins and biological fluids that influence the nature of protein adsorption to surfaces.
• Describe the major components of tissue, and how cells interact with their microenvironments, both in vivo and in vitro.
• Describe main issues in blood-material interactions, including platelet activation, fibrin clot formation, and mechanisms to control blood coagulation processes.
• Define main symptoms of, and key cell types involved in the inflammatory response.
• Describe the connections between blood coagulation and inflammatory processes.
• Discuss the significance of biomaterials related infections, which bacteria are involved, and approaches to treat and prevent their occurance.
• Describe the innate versus the acquired immune systems, including key cell types and molecular events involved in each.
• Describe the Classical versus the Alternative pathways of complement activation, and the links between the inflammatory process and the complement system.
• Describe complement-mediated reactions to biomaterials and how they are regulated and can be controlled.
• Compare the phases of normal wound healing of tissues with those of wound healing around implant materials.
• Describe the events leading to fibrous capsule formation around implants and the key parameters influencing its formation.
• Be familiar with the regulatory guidelines for marketing medical devices and recommended tests to evaluate biocompatibility of devices and their materials.

The course investigates interactions between the human body and implant biomaterials and devices. Focus is on the tissue-material interface, from molecular level events to selected biological and physiological consequences of these events. All implantation of materials into the body creates a wound, and the wound healing process occuring around the implant is key in determining the bodies reaction to the foreign material. Understanding how we can influence cellular responses to materials by engineering the biomaterial surfaces is an important goal for the development of improved medical devices as well as tissue engineered products. Host reactions to biomaterials will be covered. These include protein-surface interactions, cell-surface interactions, blood-material interactions, blood coagulation, inflammatory response, infection, immune response, complement activation, and the overall stages and processes of wound healing. The concept of biocompatibility and methods for biological testing of biomaterials will also be covered.

The course is organized into lectures, article review sessions, a mock trial, and a site visit to a medical device company, medical clinic or biomaterials research laboratory.