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Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications

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A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Regenerative Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 30557

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Haishui Huang

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Guest Editor

College of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Interests: cryobiomedicine; In vitro preservation of cells, tissues, and organs; microfluidic technology and its application; micronano scale biomaterials and tissue engineering

Prof. Dr. Xiaoming He

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Interests: nanotechnology; microfluidics; stem cells; thermal medicine

Special Issue Information

Biological tissues’ thermal conditions and properties are essential to their existences and functions, and thermal engineering is of fundamental importance in many biomedical applications. For example, thermal ablation at high temperatures is used to locally destroy or remove malignant tissues, and biopreservation at low/ambient temperatures is widely applied in biomolecule, cell, and tissue banking for vaccine storage, cell therapeutics, tissue engineering, organ transplantation, and assisted reproductive technologies.

Therefore, multiple strategies have been developed to manipulate the thermal status of biological tissues at multiple scales. Biomedical heating or cooling could be achieved by various mechanisms, such as conventional conduction and convection, acoustic wave, thermoelectric effect, electromagnetic radiation (e.g., infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet, and magnetic wave). In addition, thermal environments can be precisely controlled through the combination of biomaterials and biomedical devices on macro-, micro-, and/or nanoscale(s). The choice of thermal manipulation strategy is dependent on the context of application targets, capability of techniques, and feasibility of deployment.

Furthermore, new phenomena have been discovered and underlying sciences revealed at the junctions of thermodynamics, biology, and biomaterials. These fundamental scientific advances are elaborated on bio-heat and mass transfers, phase changes (e.g., ice nucleation and recrystallization, boiling and Leidenfrost effect, vitrification, and devitrification), and life’s extraordinary responses and adaptations under various thermal conditions.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original research and critical review articles on the most recent analytical, numerical, and experimental results in this interdisciplinary field, with the purpose of providing guidelines for future research directions. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Cryopreservation and hyperthermia
Cryotherapy and thermotherapy
Biothermal techniques and systems
Thermal biology and thermal medicine
Bioheat and mass transfer
Biothermodynamics
Thermal microenvironment

Overall, this Special Issue of Bioengineering would highlight recent advances on thermal science and engineering in the context of biomedical applications, ranging from fundamental science discoveries, novel technique developments, to new application scenarios. The collection of these papers will cover cutting-edge research activities in this booming multidisciplinary area.

Prof. Dr. Haishui Huang
Prof. Dr. Xiaoming He
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bioengineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biothermodynamics
bio-heat transfer
thermotherapy
cryotherapy
biopreservation
thermal microenvironment

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 5434 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrated Thermofluid Lumped Parameter Model for Analyzing Hemodynamics in Human Fatigue State

by Xiaoling Ding, Ying He, Youqiang Chen, Yueping Wang and Lili Long

Bioengineering 2023, 10(3), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10030368 - 17 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1363

Abstract

It is well known that driving while fatigued is dangerous and can lead to serious traffic accidents. However, there is a lack of studies on the mechanism of fatigue. This paper sought to infer changes in the cardiovascular system through hand and head skin temperature peripheral factors via an integrated lumped parameter model. A multi-layer inner structure with variable blood perfusion was used to construct a full-body thermal model. The cardiovascular system model provided blood perfusion using lumped parameters. The peripheral resistance and heart rate in the cardiovascular system model were adjusted to match the experimental temperatures of the head and hands obtained from induced fatigue experiments. The simulation results showed that the heart rate and blood pressure decreased, and the peripheral skin resistance of the hands and head increased after fatigue. A decrease in heart rate and an increase in peripheral resistance affect the magnitude of blood flow to the periphery of the body, leading to a decrease in skin temperature during fatigue. The present integrated model elucidates a key effect of human fatigue on the cardiovascular system, which is expected to help improve the accuracy of fatigue monitoring systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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18 pages, 9998 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Conformal Penetrating Heating Strategy for Atherosclerotic Plaque

by Hongying Wang, Shiqing Zhao, Jincheng Zou and Aili Zhang

Bioengineering 2023, 10(2), 162; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10020162 - 26 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1362

Abstract

(1) Background: A combination of radiofrequency (RF) volumetric heating and convection cooling has been proposed to realize plaque ablation while protecting the endothelial layer. However, the depth of the plaque and the thickness of the endothelial layer vary in different atherosclerotic lesions. Current techniques cannot be used to achieve penetrating heating for atherosclerosis with two targets (the specified protection depth and the ablation depth). (2) Methods: A tissue-mimicking phantom heating experiment simulating atherosclerotic plaque ablation was conducted to investigate the effects of the control parameters, the target temperature (T_target), the cooling water temperature (T_f), and the cooling water velocity (V_f). To further quantitatively analyze and evaluate the ablation depth and the protection depth of the control parameters, a three-dimensional model was established. In addition, a conformal penetrating heating strategy was proposed based on the numerical results. (3) Results: It was found that T_target and T_f were factors that regulated the ablation results, and the temperatures of the plaques varied linearly with T_target or T_f. The simulation results showed that the ablation depth increased with the T_target while the protection depth decreased correspondently. This relationship reversed with the T_f. When the two parameters T_target and T_fwere controlled together, the ablation depth was 0.47 mm–1.43 mm and the protection depth was 0 mm–0.26 mm within 2 min of heating. (4) Conclusions: With the proposed control algorithm, the requirements of both the ablation depth and the endothelium protection depth can be met for most plaques through the simultaneous control of T_target and T_f. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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17 pages, 1931 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Freezing of Solute-Laden Aqueous Solutions: Kinetics of Crystallization and Heat- and Mass-Transfer-Limited Model

by Stonewall Johnson, Christopher Hall, Sreyashi Das and Ram Devireddy

Bioengineering 2022, 9(10), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9100540 - 10 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1410

Abstract

Following an earlier study, we reexamined the latent heat of fusion during freezing at 5 K/min of twelve different pre-nucleated solute-laden aqueous solutions using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and correlated it with the amount of initially dissolved solids or solutes in the solution. In general, a decrease in DSC-measured heat release (in comparison to that of pure water, 335 mJ/mg) was observed with an increasing fraction of dissolved solids or solutes, as observed in the earlier study. In addition, the kinetics of ice crystallization was also obtained in three representative biological media by performing additional experiments at 1, 5 and 20 K/min. A model of ice crystallization based on the phase diagram of a water–NaCl binary solution and a modified Avrami-like model of kinetics was then developed and fit to the experimental data. Concurrently, a heat and mass transfer model of the freezing of a salt solution in a small container is also presented to account for the effect of the cooling rate as well as the solute concentration on the measured latent of freezing. This diffusion-based model of heat and mass transfer was non-dimensionalized, solved using a numerical scheme and compared with experimental results. The simulation results show that the heat and mass transfer model can predict (± 10%) the experimental results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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15 pages, 7032 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Real-Time Temperature Rise Estimation during Irreversible Electroporation Treatment through State-Space Modeling

by Sabrina N. Campelo, Edward J. Jacobs IV, Kenneth N. Aycock and Rafael V. Davalos

Bioengineering 2022, 9(10), 499; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9100499 - 23 Sep 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1754

Abstract

To evaluate the feasibility of real-time temperature monitoring during an electroporation-based therapy procedure, a data-driven state-space model was developed. Agar phantoms mimicking low conductivity (LC) and high conductivity (HC) tissues were tested under the influences of high (HV) and low (LV) applied voltages. Real-time changes in impedance, measured by Fourier Analysis SpecTroscopy (FAST) along with the known tissue conductivity and applied voltages, were used to train the model. A theoretical finite element model was used for external validation of the model, producing model fits of 95.8, 88.4, 90.7, and 93.7% at 4 mm and 93.2, 58.9, 90.0, and 90.1% at 10 mm for the HV-HC, LV-LC, HV-LC, and LV-HC groups, respectively. The proposed model suggests that real-time temperature monitoring may be achieved with good accuracy through the use of real-time impedance monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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Graphical abstract

14 pages, 4463 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Medical Grade Honey as a Promising Treatment to Improve Ovarian Tissue Transplantation

by Ana Rita Azevedo, Ana Sofia Pais, Teresa Almeida-Santos, Virgínia M. R. Pires, Pedro Pessa, Carla C. Marques, Sofia Nolasco, Pedro Castelo-Branco, José A. M. Prates, Luís Lopes-da-Costa, Mafalda Laranjo, Maria Filomena Botelho, Rosa M. L. N. Pereira and Jorge M. B. G. A. Pimenta

Bioengineering 2022, 9(8), 357; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9080357 - 30 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2387

Abstract

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is a female fertility preservation technique that presents major challenges for the maintenance of follicular viability after transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the application of L-Mesitran Soft^®, a product containing 40% medical grade honey (MGH), with other strategies to improve ovarian grafts’ viability. For this purpose, bovine ovarian tissue was vitrified, warmed and randomly assigned to culture groups: (1) control, (2) MGH 0.2% in vitro, (3) MGH in vivo (direct application in the xenotransplantation), (4) vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF 50 ng/mL) and (5) vitamin D (100 Nm), during a 48 h period. A sixth group (6) of fragments was thawed on transplantation day and was not cultured. The tissue was xenotransplanted into immunodeficient (Rowett nude homozygous) ovariectomized rats. Grafts were analyzed 48 h after culture, and 7 and 28 days after transplantation. The tissue was subjected to histological and immunohistochemical analysis. Treatments using MGH showed the highest angiogenic and cell proliferation stimulation, with cellular apoptosis, within a healthy cellular turnover pathway. In conclusion, MGH should be considered as a potentially effective and less expensive strategy to improve ovarian tissue transplantation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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14 pages, 34598 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Liquid Helium Enhanced Vitrification Efficiency of Human Bone-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Human Embryonic Stem Cells

by Mengjia Dou, Chennan Lu, Jing Liu and Wei Rao

Bioengineering 2021, 8(11), 162; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering8110162 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2049

Abstract

Stem cells have the capacity to self-renew and differentiate to specialized cells, which are usually sensitive to cryopreservation. Therefore, the cell survival rate of stem cells using common cryopreservation protocol is generally not ideal. High cooling rates are crucial for decreasing the usage of cryoprotectants (CPAs) and promoting the successful vitrification of stem cells. In this study, we adopted liquid helium (LHe) instead of liquid nitrogen (LN₂) as the cryogen to achieve high cooling rates for vitrifying stem cells with high viability and complete functions. A numerical model was established to simulate the cooling processes of vitrifying specimens by immersing them in LHe and LN₂. The calculated results revealed higher cooling rates when plunging specimens into LHe than into LN₂. The high viability of human bone-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) after vitrifying into LHe also shows the superiority of LHe as the cryogen. Furthermore, considerable cell viability was achieved by vitrification in LHe, even when decreasing the concentrations of CPAs. Additionally, post-vitrification, the cells still maintained high attachment and proliferation efficiency, normal stemness, and multipotential differentiation both for hBMSCs and hESCs. LHe is prospective to be employed as a universal cryogen for vitrification which has a great potential for widespread applications, including bioengineering and clinical medicine. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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Review

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32 pages, 1185 KiB

Open AccessReview

Technologies for Vitrification Based Cryopreservation

by Mohammad Amini and James D. Benson

Bioengineering 2023, 10(5), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10050508 - 23 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2422

Abstract

Cryopreservation is a unique and practical method to facilitate extended access to biological materials. Because of this, cryopreservation of cells, tissues, and organs is essential to modern medical science, including cancer cell therapy, tissue engineering, transplantation, reproductive technologies, and bio-banking. Among diverse cryopreservation methods, significant focus has been placed on vitrification due to low cost and reduced protocol time. However, several factors, including the intracellular ice formation that is suppressed in the conventional cryopreservation method, restrict the achievement of this method. To enhance the viability and functionality of biological samples after storage, a large number of cryoprotocols and cryodevices have been developed and studied. Recently, new technologies have been investigated by considering the physical and thermodynamic aspects of cryopreservation in heat and mass transfer. In this review, we first present an overview of the physiochemical aspects of freezing in cryopreservation. Secondly, we present and catalog classical and novel approaches that seek to capitalize on these physicochemical effects. We conclude with the perspective that interdisciplinary studies provide pieces of the cryopreservation puzzle to achieve sustainability in the biospecimen supply chain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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17 pages, 3447 KiB

Open AccessReview

Biomolecular Pathways of Cryoinjuries in Low-Temperature Storage for Mammalian Specimens

by Ying Fu, Wenjun Dang, Xiaocong He, Feng Xu and Haishui Huang

Bioengineering 2022, 9(10), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9100545 - 12 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1977

Abstract

Low-temperature preservation could effectively extend in vitro storage of biological materials due to delayed or suspended cellular metabolism and decaying as illustrated by the Arrhenius model. It is widely used as an enabling technology for a variety of biomedical applications such as cell therapeutics, assisted reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, and mRNA medicine. Although the technology to minimize cryoinjuries of mammalian specimens during preservation has been advanced substantially over past decades, mammalian specimens still suffer cryoinjuries under low-temperature conditions. Particularly, the molecular mechanisms underlying cryoinjuries are still evasive, hindering further improvement and development of preservation technologies. In this paper, we systematically recapitulate the molecular cascades of cellular injuries induced by cryopreservation, including apoptosis, necroptosis, ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). Therefore, this study not only summarizes the impact of low-temperature preservations on preserved cells and organs on the molecular level, but also provides a molecular basis to reduce cryoinjuries for future exploration of biopreservation methods, materials, and devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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17 pages, 6541 KiB

Open AccessReview

Synergetic Thermal Therapy for Cancer: State-of-the-Art and the Future

by Qizheng Dai, Bo Cao, Shiqing Zhao and Aili Zhang

Bioengineering 2022, 9(9), 474; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9090474 - 15 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3209

Abstract

As a safe and minimal-invasive modality, thermal therapy has become an effective treatment in cancer treatment. Other than killing the tumor cells or destroying the tumor entirely, the thermal modality results in profound molecular, cellular and biological effects on both the targeted tissue, surrounding environments, and even the whole body, which has triggered the combination of the thermal therapy with other traditional therapies as chemotherapy and radiation therapy or new therapies like immunotherapy, gene therapy, etc. The combined treatments have shown encouraging therapeutic effects both in research and clinic. In this review, we have summarized the outcomes of the existing synergistic therapies, the underlying mechanisms that lead to these improvements, and the latest research in the past five years. Limitations and future directions of synergistic thermal therapy are also discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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24 pages, 4956 KiB

Open AccessReview

Gold Nanorod-Assisted Photothermal Therapy and Improvement Strategies

by Mitchell Lee Taylor, Raymond Edward Wilson, Jr., Kristopher Daniel Amrhein and Xiaohua Huang

Bioengineering 2022, 9(5), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9050200 - 05 May 2022

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4435

Abstract

Noble metal nanoparticles have been sought after in cancer nanomedicine during the past two decades, owing to the unique localized surface plasmon resonance that induces strong absorption and scattering properties of the nanoparticles. A popular application of noble metal nanoparticles is photothermal therapy, which destroys cancer cells by heat generated by laser irradiation of the nanoparticles. Gold nanorods have stood out as one of the major types of noble metal nanoparticles for photothermal therapy due to the facile tuning of their optical properties in the tissue penetrative near infrared region, strong photothermal conversion efficiency, and long blood circulation half-life after surface modification with stealthy polymers. In this review, we will summarize the optical properties of gold nanorods and their applications in photothermal therapy. We will also discuss the recent strategies to improve gold nanorod-assisted photothermal therapy through combination with chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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19 pages, 1067 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Natural Cryoprotectant Honey for Fertility Cryopreservation

by Faryal Farooq Cheepa, Huilan Liu and Gang Zhao

Bioengineering 2022, 9(3), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9030088 - 22 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6132

Abstract

Honey is a mixture of 25 sugars with other bioactive substances (i.e., organic acids, enzymes, antioxidants, and vitamins) and has been known as a highly nutritious functional food. Traditionally, it has been widely used in medicinal applications to cure various diseases. The effectiveness of honey in different applications has been used for its antimicrobial activity, absorption of hydrops, cleansing, removing odor, assisting granulation, recovery of nutrition, and formation of tissue and epithelium, which proved that honey has dehydrating and preserving properties to make it ideal for the cryopreservation of cells and tissues. Cryopreservation is an advanced preservation technique for tissue, cells, organelles, or other biological specimen storage, performed by cooling the sample at a very low temperature. It is the most common approach to improved preserving fertility (sperm, embryos, and oocytes) in different species that may undergo various life-threatening illnesses and allows for the genetic screening of these cells to test the sample for diseases before use. However, with toxic cryoprotectant (CPA), cryopreservation of fertility has been challenging because of their particular structure and sensitivity to chilling. Honey’s unique composition, as well as its dehydrating and preserving properties, qualify it to be used as a natural cryoprotectant. The aim of this study is to emphasize the ability of honey as a natural cryoprotectant in cryopreservation. The articles for this review were searched from Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Scopus, using the keywords, honey, cryopreservation, natural cryoprotectant/CPAs, extenders, and fertility. Honey, as a natural cryoprotectant in fertility cryopreservation, yielded satisfactory results, with respect to improved post-thaw quality and viability. It is now proved as a non-toxic and highly efficient natural cryoprotectant in fertility preservation because its increasing viscosity at low temperature can provide a protective barrier to cells by reducing ice formation. Furthermore, its antioxidant property plays a vital role in protecting the cells from thermal damage by reducing the reactive oxygen species (ROS). This review provides a road map for future studies to investigate the potential of honey in the cryopreservation of other cells and tissue and contribute to the scientific research, regarding this remarkable natural product. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscale Thermal Engineering for Biomedical Applications)

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