Advanced Polymeric Scaffolds for Stem Cell Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

Polymer scaffolds play a crucial role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications since they can closely mimic the architecture of a native extracellular matrix (ECM) and improve the biological performance of cells both in vitro and in vivo. Natural and synthetic polymers have been extensively used in tissue engineering strategies to fabricate 3D scaffolds with the desired structural, chemical, biological, mechanical, and degradation properties to guide specific stem cell fates and match the particular requirements for the regeneration of different target tissues. Recent developments in scaffold fabrication technologies, such as additive manufacturing (e.g., bioprinting) and electrospinning, have increased the complexity and functionality of polymer-based scaffolds, which has improved their regenerative potential and encouraged their use in combination with stem cells to develop disruptive tissue engineering strategies and improved in vitro disease models.

In this Special Issue on “Advanced Polymeric Scaffolds for Stem Cell Engineering and Regenerative Medicine”, the scope will be on recent exciting developments of state-of-the-art polymeric biomaterial scaffolds with great potential for stem cell-based tissue engineering applications. Related topics include multiphasic, multistructured, and hierarchical polymer scaffolds for the tissue engineering and in vitro modeling of complex tissues; cell–biomaterial interactions; stimuli-responsive polymeric scaffolds; controlled delivery of cells/drugs; additive manufacturing technologies for the fabrication of customized implants; and decellularized tissue/cell-derived ECM scaffolds used alone or as composites with synthetic polymers. However, topics are not limited to these strategies and can cover all research areas concerning the use of polymer scaffolds for regenerative medicine applications. This Special Issue welcomes full research papers, communications and up-to-date reviews.

The manuscripts should be submitted online before 30 April, 2021. We would very much appreciate it if you consider contributing to this Special Issue.

Dr. João Carlos Silva
Prof. Dr. Frederico Castelo Ferreira
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. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.