Recent advances using gold nanoparticles as a promising multimodal tool for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Uncorrected proofGold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have arisen a lot of interest in the clinical realms of nanomedicine. Despite the large ad- vances made in cancer research using AuNPs, their use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) is still in its infancy. Herein, it is discussed the properties, functionalization, and emerging use of AuNPs as a multifunctional and multimodal platform for drug delivery, phototherapy, diagnostic and cell imaging purposes. Moreover, the recent reports related to the ability of AuNPs to enhance stem cell differentiation for bone tissue engineering, to enhance the mechanical and adhesive properties of scaffolds and surface topography to guide cell behaviors are addressed.The authors would like to thank QREN (ON.2 – NORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000018) co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Program (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for providing financial support to this project. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) distinction attributed to J.M. Oliveira under the FCT Investigator program (IF/00423/2012) is also greatly acknowledged. The authors also thank the financial support provided under the ERC funded project ComplexiTE (Grant ERC-2012-ADG_20120216-321266)