Polymeric Scaffolds: Design, Processing, and Biomedical Application

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, regenerative medicine and modern surgery approaches are presumably the most promising scientific activities, giving hope for our aging society to extend life expectancy and, at the same time, to improve quality of life. A combination of emerging biomedical technologies and achievements in creating new synthetic biomaterials may support the regeneration and repair of tissue or damaged organs or even whole parts of the body. Thanks to that, the ideas of many science-fiction writers are closer to being realized. Using biocompatible and biodegradable supporting structures, i.e., scaffolds or artificial matrices in conjunction with human cells, is one of major goals in the process of creating many kinds of biological substitutes intended to restore or improve tissue functions. For this reason, scaffold design and synthesis, and the selection of advanced biomaterials with tailored properties for their planned application, as well as their modeling and processing, play a key role in tissue engineering.

This Special Issue aims to highlight studies that focus on polymeric scaffolds, especially those made of synthetic polymers. The latter, particularly intentionally designed copolymers or certain polymer combinations forming blends, are thought to assure better functionality than natural polymers. The papers published in this Issue will cover topics related to the synthesis of specially tailored polymeric materials, techniques of scaffold production, and various modifications to improve physicochemical properties as well as their biomedical performance. As a part of this Issue, we also plan to publish articles on the manufacturing and use of other polymeric biodegradable scaffolds suitable for plastic and reconstructive surgery, or as temporary prostheses supporting damaged or diseased tissues, e.g., grafts and stents for cardiovascular surgery and scaffolds supporting bone and cartilage tissue regeneration. The topic of this Special Issue is particularly addressed to professionals, industrial practitioners, medicine doctors, and researchers, working in the fields of polymer chemistry, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, reconstructive surgery, or biomaterial science.

We cordially invite you to contribute original research papers or interesting reviews to this thematic Issue.

Dr. Piotr Dobrzynski
Prof. Dr. Elzbieta Pamula
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.