Enhancing Biological and Biomechanical Fixation of Osteochondral Scaffold: A Grand Challenge

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease, typified by degradation of cartilage and changes in the subchondral bone, resulting in pain, stiffness and reduced mobility. Current surgical treatments often fail to regenerate hyaline cartilage and result in the formation of fibrocartilage. Tissue engineering approaches have emerged for the repair of cartilage defects and damages to the subchondral bones in the early stage of OA and have shown potential in restoring the joint's function. In this approach, the use of three-dimensional scaffolds (with or without cells) provides support for tissue growth. Commercially available osteochondral (OC) scaffolds have been studied in OA patients for repair and regeneration of OC defects. However, some controversial results are often reported from both clinical trials and animal studies. The objective of this chapter is to report the scaffolds clinical requirements and performance of the currently available OC scaffolds that have been investigated both in animal studies and in clinical trials. The findings have demonstrated the importance of biological and biomechanical fixation of the OC scaffolds in achieving good cartilage fill and improved hyaline cartilage formation. It is concluded that improving cartilage fill, enhancing its integration with host tissues and achieving a strong and stable subchondral bone support for overlying cartilage are still grand challenges for the early treatment of OA

Stříbrem dopovaný hydroxidapatitový povlak nanášený pomocí suspenzního plazmatického nástřiku

Čistá suspenze hydroxidapatatu byla vyrobena pomocí chemické sysntézy. S použitím WSP hořáku byl vytvořen HA povlak na substrátu z SS304 a Ti6Al4V. Vlastnosti povlaku byly hodnoceny pomocí SEM, XRD a EDX. PO dopozici bylo dosaženo 4-10% podílu amorfní fáze a 75-82% krystalické HA fáze v tloušťcě cca 145 um. Tribologické chování bylo hodnoceno pomocí testu pin-on-disc. Přídavek AgNO3 do suspenze vedl k vzniku Ag disperze mezi splaty v 8% podílu Ag. Úspěšné přidání antibakteriálního Ag je pokrokem v oblasti výzkumu materiálů kloubních náhrad.Pure hydroxyapatite suspension was produced by wet chemical synthesis. Using a hybrid water-stabilized torch, a series of HA coatings were produced on SS304 and Ti6Al4V substrates and their properties were characterized by SEM, EDX and XRD techniques. After deposition, the amorphous phase content reached 6-10% and the coatings retained 75-82% of crystalline HA phase. Their thickness reached 145 lm. To understand the wear behavior of the coatings, pin-on-disc tribology evaluation was performed. Additionally, a set of HA coatings was prepared with pure metallic Ag content. This formed by in situ chemical decomposition of AgNO3 added into the HA suspension. The Ag was dispersed evenly within the coatings in the form of submicron-sized particles situated predominantly along the HA splats boundaries with a total Ag content of 8 wt.%. Given the antibacterial properties of Ag, such result presents a promising step forward in the hard tissue replacement research

Current advances in solid free-form techniques for osteochondral tissue engineering

Osteochondral (OC) lesions are characterized by defects in two different zones, the cartilage region and subchondral bone region. These lesions are frequently associated with mechanical instability, as well as osteoarthritic degenerative changes in the knee. The lack of spontaneous healing and the drawbacks of the current treatments has increased the attention from the scientific community to this issue. Different tissue engineering approaches have been attempted using different polymers and different scaffolds' processing. However, the current conventional techniques do not allow the full control over scaffold fabrication, and in this type of approaches, the tuning ability is the key to success in tissue regeneration. In this sense, the researchers have placed their efforts in the development of solid free-form (SFF) techniques. These techniques allow tuning different properties at the micro-macro scale, creating scaffolds with appropriate features for OC tissue engineering. In this review, it is discussed the current SFF techniques used in OC tissue engineering and presented their promising results and current challenges.The authors would like to thank H2020-MSCA-RISE program, as this work is part of developments carried out in BAMOS project, funded from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement Nº 734156. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) distinctions attributed to J. Silva-Correia (IF/00115/2015) and J. Miguel Oliveira (IF/01285/2015) under the Investigator FCT program are greatly acknowledged. FCT/MCTES is also acknowledged for the PhD scholarship attributed to J. B. Costa (PD/BD/113803/2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tissue engineering strategies for osteochondral repair

Tissue engineering strategies have been pushing forward several fields in the range of biomedical research. The musculoskeletal field is not an exception. In fact, tissue engineering has been a great asset in the development of new treatments for osteochondral lesions. Herein, we overview the recent developments in osteochondral tissue engineering. Currently, the treatments applied in a clinical scenario have shown some drawbacks given the difficulty in regenerate a fully functional hyaline cartilage. Among the different strategies designed for osteochondral regeneration, it is possible to identify cell-free strategies, scaffold-free strategies and advanced strategies, where different materials are combined with cells. Cell-free strategies consist in the development of scaffolds in the attempt to better fulfill the requirements of the cartilage regeneration process. For that, different structures have been designed, from monolayers to multi-layered structures with the intent to mimic the osteochondral architecture. In the case of scaffold-free strategies, they took advantage on the extracellular matrix produced by cells. The last strategy relies in the development of new biomaterials capable of mimicking the extracellular matrix. This way, the cell growth, proliferation and differentiation at the lesion site is expedited, exploiting the self-regenerative potential of cells and its interaction with biomolecules. Overall, despite the difficulties associated with each approach, tissue engineering has been proven a valuable tool in the regeneration of osteochondral lesions, and together with the latest advances in the field, promises to revolutionize personalized therapies.The authors thank the funds obtained through the Nanotech4als (ENMed/0008/2015), Hierarchitech (M-ERA-NET/0001/2014) and FROnTHERA (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-0000232) projects. FRM acknowledges Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for her post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/117492/2016), MRC acknowledges Doctoral Program financed by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte, Fundo Social Europeu, Norte 2020 for her PhD grant (NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000044 TERM&SC), and JMO thanks FCT for the distinction attributed under the Investigator FCT program (IF/01285/2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio