Unlocking the biological potential of emulsion-templated matrices through surface engineering for biomedical applications

Abstract

Emulsion templating is a highly advantageous route for the fabrication of porous materials, enabling the development of matrices with high porosity, high interconnectivity, and precise morphological control. Synthetic polymers are most widely used in the fabrication of emulsion-templated tissue engineering scaffolds due to their superior mechanical strength, ease of fabrication, control over polymer properties, and batch-to-batch stability. The biological response is strongly associated with the surface properties of the biomaterials; however, scaffolds constructed from synthetic polymers often lack cell recognition sites and exhibit limited bioactivity. Thus, synthetic polymer-based porous matrices commonly require surface post-modification to improve cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, gene expression, and differentiation processes. To date, extensive work has been carried out investigating surface modification of scaffolds fabricated via traditional scaffold fabrication techniques. Still, studies addressing the post-modification of emulsion-templated matrices are comparatively limited despite an exponential increase in the number of publications on emulsion templating for tissue engineering in recent years. This review will first examine the fundamentals of emulsion templating, then describe cell adhesion and the characteristics of scaffolds that influence cell-material interactions. It will then provide a comprehensive analysis of surface modification techniques and recent advancements in surface-modified emulsion-templated matrices for tissue engineering applications. Finally, we address the challenges and future directions in this rapidly evolving field. We anticipate that this comprehensive literature review will present the current state-of-the-art and serve as a valuable roadmap for researchers seeking to enhance the biological performance of their emulsion-templated scaffolds through surface modifications. Such scaffold optimisation strategies not only improve cell-material interactions but also hold translational potential for advancing human healthcare through more effective regenerative therapies.