Electroacoustic Responsive Cochlea-on-a-Chip.

Organ-on-chips can highly simulate the complex physiological functions of organs, exhibiting broad application prospects in developmental research, disease simulation, as well as new drug research and development. However, there is still less concern about effectively constructing cochlea-on-chips. Here, a novel cochlear organoids-integrated conductive hydrogel biohybrid system with cochlear implant electroacoustic stimulation (EAS) for cochlea-on-a-chip construction and high-throughput drug screening, is presented. Benefiting from the superior biocompatibility and electrical property of conductive hydrogel, together with cochlear implant EAS, the inner ear progenitor cells can proliferate and spontaneously shape into spheres, finally forming cochlear organoids with good cell viability and structurally mature hair cells. By incorporating these progenitor cells-encapsulated hydrogels into a microfluidic-based cochlea-on-a-chip with culture chambers and a concentration gradient generator, a dynamic and high-throughput evaluation of inner ear disease-related drugs is demonstrated. These results indicate that the proposed cochlea-on-a-chip platform has great application potential in organoid cultivation and deafness drug evaluation.

Emerging biotechnologies and biomedical engineering technologies for hearing reconstruction.

Hearing impairment is a global health problem that affects social communications and the economy. The damage and loss of cochlear hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) as well as the degeneration of neurites of SGNs are the core causes of sensorineural hearing loss. Biotechnologies and biomedical engineering technologies provide new hope for the treatment of auditory diseases, which utilizes biological strategies or tissue engineering methods to achieve drug delivery and the regeneration of cells, tissues, and even organs. Here, the advancements in the applications of biotechnologies (including gene therapy and cochlear organoids) and biomedical engineering technologies (including drug delivery, electrode coating, electrical stimulation and bionic scaffolds) in the field of hearing reconstruction are presented. Moreover, we summarize the challenges and provide a perspective on this field.

Preparation of amino-functionalized mesostructured cellular foams and application as hosts for large biomolecules.

Large mesopores cellular foam (LMCFs) materials were synthesized using microemulsion templating in acidic solutions. The amine functional groups were attached to channels of LMCFs materials via post-synthesis grafting. The structural and chemical properties of these prepared materials were characterized by TEM, XRD, FTIR and nitrogen adsorption. These resulting materials had disordered mesopores with well-defined large mesopore. The bovine serum albumin (BSA) and glucose oxidase (GOx) were used for adsorption experiment. The biomolecule was immobilized by covalently couple to the interior surface of amino-functionalized mesostructured cellular foams (AF-MCFs). The results showed that AF-MCFs had high-capacity bioimmobilization ability.