Bioactive composites for bone tissue engineering

One of the major challenges of bone tissue engineering is the production of a suitable scaffold material. In this review the current composite materials options available are considered covering both the methods of both production and assessing the scaffolds. A range of production routes have been investigated ranging from the use of porogens to produce the porosity through to controlled deposition methods. The testing regimes have included mechanical testing of the materials produced through to in vivo testing of the scaffolds. While the ideal scaffold material has not yet been produced, progress is being made

Micro computed tomography based finite element models of calcium phosphate scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Bone is a living tissue that is able to regenerate by itself. However, when severe bone defects occur, the natural regeneration may be impaired. In these cases, bone graft substitutes can be used to induce the natural healing process. As a scaffold for tissue engineering, these bone graft substitutes have to meet specific requirements. Among others, the material must be biocompatible, biodegradable and have a porous structure to allow vascularization, cell migration and formation of new bone. Additionally, the mechanical properties of the scaffold have to resemble the ones of native tissue. The goal of this project is to create a computational model of the calcium phosphate scaffolds that are produced by rapid-prototyping by the Biomaterials, Biomechanics, and Tissue Engineering group at the Technical University of Catalonia. These models are based on finite element analysis and micro computed tomography images in order to consider the actual architecture of the scaffolds. The generated FE-models allow the computation of both local strains, which act as mechanical stimuli on attached cells, as well as the behaviour of the entire scaffold. When considering this information, the scaffold can be optimized for tissue differentiation by tuning both the scaffold architecture and the scaffold material bulk properties.Incomin

Types of scaffolds and their application in bone tissue engineering

Bone tissue engineering is founded on the conception of bone structure, bone mechanics and tissue creature as it aims to restore, maintain, or improve tissue functions that are defective or have been lost by different pathological conditions. Functional bone tissueengineering exact the newly reconstruct bone to be completely integrated with the host bone. Compared with small bone defects, for successful regeneration of large bone defects is necessary implantation of bone replacement in a critical defect. In recent years, the research has been focused on the producting of biomaterials, scaffolds, which are defined as three-dimension porous solid biomaterials designed for differnet applications. Materials have been developed for tissue engineering approaches and currently proposed types of scaffolds made of inorganic materials, organic or synthetic polymers, or of mixed materials (composite scaffolds). The concept of tissue engineering is being applied for treatment of salivary gland disorders, regeneration of craniofacial tissues, oral mucose, periodontium, dentin and dental pulp. Further, we review current patents on scaffold for bone regeneration and their classification, as well as biocompatibility of scaffolds and cells. Preoperative and perioperative contamination and biomaterial-associated infections pose a serious problem in tissue engineering. In order to prevent and treat bone infections, antibiotics could be incorporated into scaffold and those scaffolds could be utilized for tissue engineering

Comparative study of collagen and gelatin coatings on titanium surfaces

The vast majority of studies in the bone tissue engineering field are focused on the surface modification of titanium scaffolds to obtain integration of the scaffold in the surrounding bone tissue. Our approach consisted in benefiting from the advantages of the cell-interaction capabilities of collagen and gelatin. The biopolymers were immobilised onto the Ti surface through different methods and the stability of the obtained coatings was determined. The obtained results reveal that covalent immobilisation of collagen and gelatin is required to obtain stable surface coatings

Guest editorial: special issue on bone tissue engineering

No abstract availabl

Responsive and In situ-forming chitosan scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications : an overview of the last decade

The use of bioabsorbable polymeric scaffolds is being investigated for use in bone tissue engineering applications, as their properties can be tailored to allow them to degrade and integrate at optimal rates as bone remodelling is completed. The main goal of this review is to highlight the “intelligent” properties exhibited by chitosan scaffolds and their use in the bone tissue engineering field. To complement the fast evolution of the bone tissue engineering field, it is important to propose the use of responsive scaffolds and take advantage of bioinspired materials and their properties as emerging technologies. There is a growing interest and need for new biomaterials, such as “smart”/responsive materials with the capability to respond to changes in the in vivo environment. This review will provide an overview of strategies that can modulate bone tissue regeneration by using in situ-forming scaffolds

Bone tissue engineering

Medical advances have led to a welcome increase in life expectancy. However, accompanying longevity introduces new challenges: increases in age-related diseases and associated reductions in quality of life. The loss of skeletal tissue that can accompany trauma, injury, disease or advancing years can result in significant morbidity and significant socio-economic cost and emphasise the need for new, more reliable skeletal regeneration strategies. To address the unmet need for bone augmentation, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have come to the fore in recent years with new approaches for de novo skeletal tissue formation. Typically, these approaches seek to harness stem cells, innovative scaffolds and biological factors that promise enhanced and more reliable bone formation strategies to improve the quality of life for many. This review provides an overview of recent developments in bone tissue engineering focusing on skeletal stem cells, vascular development, bone formation and the translation from preclinical in vivo models to clinical delivery

The use of hydrogels in bone-tissue engineering

Many different types of scaffold materials have been used for tissue engineering applications, and hydrogels form one group of materials that have been used in a wide variety of applications. Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymer networks and they represent an important class of biomaterials in biotechnology and medicine because many hydrogels exhibit excellent biocompatibility with minimal inflammatory responses and tissue damage. Many studies have demonstrated the use of hydrogels in bone-tissue engineering applications. In this report, the summary was conducted on various kinds of polymers and different modification methods of hydrogels to enhance bone formation. The results revealed that hydrogels are applied for bone regeneration and that the modification of hydrogels with bioactive molecules or cell-based approaches resulted in significant increases in new bone formation. This suggests that the use of hydrogels with modification may offer an option for bone-tissue engineering, and further research is needed to identify the biological and physical properties of hydrogels

Embryonic stem cells in bone tissue engineering

Due to increased life expectancy of humans the number of patients with age related skeletal compliciations has increased. These patients but also patients suffering from complications due to trauma or disease often need surgical interventions in which additional bone is required for optimal recovery. Currently the most frequently used bone replacement is autologous or allogeneic bone, but both methods have their drawbacks

Enhanced Osteogenesis of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells by Regulating Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signaling Antagonists and Agonists.

UnlabelledAlthough adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are an attractive cell source for bone tissue engineering, direct use of ASCs alone has had limited success in the treatment of large bone defects. Although bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are believed to be the most potent osteoinductive factors to promote osteogenic differentiation of ASCs, their clinical applications require supraphysiological dosage, leading to high medical burden and adverse side effects. In the present study, we demonstrated an alternative approach that can effectively complement the BMP activity to maximize the osteogenesis of ASCs without exogenous application of BMPs by regulating levels of antagonists and agonists to BMP signaling. Treatment of ASCs with the amiloride derivative phenamil, a positive regulator of BMP signaling, combined with gene manipulation to suppress the BMP antagonist noggin, significantly enhanced osteogenic differentiation of ASCs through increased BMP-Smad signaling in vitro. Furthermore, the combination approach of noggin suppression and phenamil stimulation enhanced the BMP signaling and bone repair in a mouse calvarial defect model by adding noggin knockdown ASCs to apatite-coated poly(lactic-coglycolic acid) scaffolds loaded with phenamil. These results suggest novel complementary osteoinductive strategies that could maximize activity of the BMP pathway in ASC bone repair while reducing potential adverse effects of current BMP-based therapeutics.SignificanceAlthough stem cell-based tissue engineering strategy offers a promising alternative to repair damaged bone, direct use of stem cells alone is not adequate for challenging healing environments such as in large bone defects. This study demonstrates a novel strategy to maximize bone formation pathways in osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and functional bone formation by combining gene manipulation with a small molecule activator toward osteogenesis. The findings indicate promising stem cell-based therapy for treating bone defects that can effectively complement or replace current osteoinductive therapeutics