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To repair bone defects, an important approach is to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds as substitutions to replace auto-/allologous bones. Currently, processing a biomaterial into three-dimensional porous scaffolds and incorporating the calcium phosphate (Ca–P) nanoparticles into scaffolds profile two main characteristics of bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Based on this fact, in this paper we describe the design principles of the Ca–P nanoparticle-based and porous bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Then we summarize a variety of the Ca–P nanoparticle-based scaffolds, including discussion of the integration of the Ca–P nanoparticles with ceramics and polymers, followed by introduction of safety of the Ca–P nanoparticles in scaffolds.

Hierarchical self-assembling of materials represents one of the most appealing subjects in nanoscience, since bottom-up strategies allow for tailor-made synthesis of functional structures in commodities as well as in living systems. Herein we show that nanorings of ca. 10nm silica nanoparticles without any inorganic metal oxide or organic participant are able to spontaneously self-assemble presenting sophisticated forms and hierarchy. It was observed that after synthesis, silica nanoparticles are chaotically distributed but during storage at ambient conditions they spontaneously form self-assembled aggregates with multiplicity of morphologies when a small amount of water is added in the environment. Detailed description of the morphology of such structures by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) is presented together with a discussion about the role of water during their spontaneous formation.

In this study, poly (lactic acid-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles loaded with anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen (KET) were prepared and then coated with platelet membrane (PLTM) to form KET@PLTM-PLGA nano-particles (NPs). The particle size of the KET@PLTM-PLGA NPs is 176nm and the surface protein is the same as that of PLTM. The results of confocal microscopy and flow cytometry showed that the KET@PLTM-PLGA NPs uptake of RAW264.7 induced by LPS was significantly higher than that of KET@PLGA NPs, without PLTM, which was due to the binding of P-selectin to CD44 receptors on the surface of RAW264.7 cells induced by LPS on the surface of PLTM. Compared with other KET preparations, KET@PLTM-PLGA NPs have better anti-inflammatory effect.