Biomedical Applications of Wrinkling Polymers

Abstract

Advancements in surface engineering and material fabrication techniques have enabled the creation and replication of naturally occurring surface topographies or the extrapolation of natural patterns to become achievable targets. Polymers are used extensively in the field of biomedical sciences for containment, handling, and as cell culture substrates. It is well established that several polymers exhibit good biocompatibility for cell culture, with properties that include exhibiting minimal to no cytotoxicity and being sufficiently hydrophilic to facilitate cell adhesion. However, when using biologically representative materials, there is always a challenge of achieving tissue representative surface topography and architecture. Wrinkles in human skin represent a considerably common surface topography, resulting from aging and maturity of the tissue. Inspired by this natural topography, the present review article discusses the various techniques for generating wrinkle-like patterns on the polymer surfaces, along with their potential biomedical applications. Wrinkling as material science and as a physical concept has been explored only during the last century. The transfer of the knowledge related to wrinkling from hard engineering materials to soft elastomers has resulted in the development of an active research field, although it remains in its infancy in terms of application in biomedical science and engineering. It is suggested that wrinkling of polymers, particularly elastomers, would have numerous applications, ranging from tissue modeling in drug and therapy design to in vitro organogenesis for therapeutic explants in the field of regenerative medicine.