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

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have arisen a lot of interest in the clinical realms of nanomedicine. Despite the large advances 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. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.