Vignesh Muthuvijayan

Bacterial infection and biofilm formation are serious concerns in the wound healing process and with biomedical implants and devices. Different methods for engineering of surfaces have been studied over the years to mitigate biofilm formation. The major factors controlling biofilm formation are environmental, material, and bacterial properties. Out of these, engineering of the material surface is the most viable option for improving the antibacterial activity and controlling implant-related biofilm infections. These surface engineering strategies focus on altering physicochemical properties of the material surface, developing antiadhesive surfaces, coating with bioactive organic and inorganic molecules, and adding antimicrobial moieties to inhibit bacterial adhesion or express bacteriostatic or bactericidal effects. This chapter discusses the mechanism of biofilm formation and the surface engineering approaches applied to prevent biofilms.

The repairing procedure in the nervous system is intricate and brings significant difficulties to investigators. The complication of the structure and function of the nervous system, and its slow rate of regeneration, make it further challenging to treat in comparison to other human tissues when damage takes place. Furthermore, the existing therapeutic modalities comprising the utilization of conventional grafts and pharmacological actives have numerous shortcomings and cannot completely rehabilitate injuries to the nervous system. Though the peripheral nerves regenerate to some extent, the consequent findings are not satisfactory, especially for severe injuries. The continuing functional loss owing to inadequate regeneration of the nerve is a significant problem around the world. Therefore, a successful therapeutic approach to bring functional rehabilitation is immediately required. Lately, tissue engineering methods have enticed many scientists to lead tissue regeneration efficiently. Majorly, the electrospinning method has come into the limelight for the fabrication of the scaffolds as they can develop fibrous meshes with fiber diameter in nanoscale dimensions. The electrospun substrates have a high prospective in mimicking the structure of the natural extracellular matrix. These produced fibers can be random or oriented to assist the extension of neurite via contact guidance. In this book chapter, we have demonstrated the principal parameters necessary for suitable electrospinning. Further, we have discussed the recent advances of electrospun polymeric scaffolds in neural tissue engineering. Finally, the challenges and future potentialities have been addressed.