Molecularly imprinted polymers for selective recognition in regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine represents an interdisciplinary field focused on the promotion of regeneration processes, which are aimed to repair injured and/or diseased tissues. In this context, tissue engineering plays a key role in the development of innovative scaffolds able to promote tissue regeneration modulating cell behavior in terms of proliferation, differentiation, and adhesion. Molecular imprinting (MI) is an effective technology for the synthesis of cross-linked polymers characterized by selective recognition properties for a chosen template molecule. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthesized in the presence of the target compound, which is introduced in the reaction process in order to obtain polymeric matrices with complementary cavities and selective binding sites. During the last years, MIPs have found application in several fields including drug delivery and separation sciences, but this kind of materials has also a great potential for use in regenerative medicine. The present chapter provides an overview of MI focusing its attention on the potential application of MIPs in regenerative medicine to prepare scaffolds with molecular recognition abilities. Moreover, the possibility to imprint cells as a template will be explored.