ObjectiveTo review the research progress of natural biomaterial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in orthopedics. Methods The literature concerning PHA devices for bone defects, bone repair, and bone neoplasms, respectively, in recent years was extensively consulted. The three aspects of the advantages of PHA in bone repair, the preparation of PHA medical devices for bone repair and their application in orthopedics were discussed. ResultsDue to excellent biodegradability, biocompatibility, and potential osteoinduction, PHA is a kind of good bone repair material. In addition to the traditional PHA medical implants, the use of electrostatic spinning and three-dimensional printing can be designed to various functional PHA medical devices, in order to meet the orthopedic clinical demands, including the bone regeneration, minimally invasive bone tissue repair by injection, antibacterial bone repair, auxiliary establishment of three-dimensional bone tumor model, directed osteogenic differentiation of stem cells, etc. ConclusionAt present, PHA is a hotspot of biomaterials for translational medicine in orthopedics. Although they have not completely applied in the clinic, the advantages of repair in bone defects have been gradually reflected in tissue engineering, showing an application prospect in orthopedics.
This study aims to explore the vascularization of hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate (HA/TCP) biomaterials implanted in mice during osteoinduction. The HA/TCP biomaterials were implanted in muscle of mice, and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks after the implantation, the materials were harvested to prepare serial sections and hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. The process of vascularization was dynamically described, and the area percentage of neovascularization was quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that neovascularization formation was a continuous and dynamic process. The neovascularization appeared largely in the first two weeks, with a rising trend in week 4, reached peak in week 6, and gradually reduced in week 8. The results provide ideas for improving the success rate of bone tissue engineering, and indicate the mechanism of osteoinduction.
ObjectiveTo review the research progress of in vivo bioreactor (IVB) for bone tissue engineering in order to provide reference for its future research direction.MethodsThe literature related to IVB used in bone tissue engineering in recent years was reviewed, and the principles of IVB construction, tissue types, sites, and methods of IVB construction, as well as the advantages of IVB used in bone tissue engineering were summarized.ResultsIVB takes advantage of the body’s ability to regenerate itself, using the body as a bioreactor to regenerate new tissues or organs at injured sites or at ectopic sites that can support the regeneration of new tissues. IVB can be constructed by tissue flap (subcutaneous pocket, muscle flap/pocket, fascia flap, periosteum flap, omentum flap/abdominal cavity) and axial vascular pedicle (axial vascular bundle, arteriovenous loop) alone or jointly. IVB is used to prefabricate vascularized tissue engineered bone that matched the shape and size of the defect. The prefabricated vascularized tissue engineered bone can be used as bone graft, pedicled bone flap, or free bone flap to repair bone defect. IVB solves the problem of insufficient vascularization in traditional bone tissue engineering to a certain extent.ConclusionIVB is a promising method for vascularized tissue engineered bone prefabrication and subsequent bone defect reconstruction, with unique advantages in the repair of large complex bone defects. However, the complexity of IVB construction and surgical complications hinder the clinical application of IVB. Researchers should aim to develop a simple, safe, and efficient IVB.
Objective
To review the progress of cell sheet technology and its application in bone and cartilage engineering.
Methods
The recent literature concerning the cell sheet technology used in treatment of bone and cartilage defects was extensively reviewed and summarized.
Results
Cell sheet built through many different ways can protect extracellular matrix from proteolytic enzymes. As a three-dimensional structure, cell sheet can repair bone and cartilige defects via folding, wrapping scaffold, or be created by the layering of individual cell sheets.
Conclusion
The cell sheet technology would have a very broad prospects in bone and cartilage tissue engineering in future.
Bioactive glass (BG) has been widely used in bone tissue engineering due to its good osteogenic property and bioactivity, but it still has some deficiencies, such as poor cell adhesion and low osteogenic rate and so on. Mesoporous biological glass (MBG) is a kind of new material originated from BG and mesoporous silica (MS). Because of its large number of nano-channel, large specific surface area, easy degradation, good biocompatibility and biological activity, MBG has great application prospects in the field of bone tissue engineering. This review would present MBG preparation and experimental research in order to provide the theoretical basis and experimental reference for related researches.
We investigated the development of an injectable, biodegradable hydrogel composite of poly(trimethylene carbonate)-F127-poly(trimethylene carbonate)(PTMC11-F127-PTMC11)loaded with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) derived peptide P24 for ectopic bone formation in vivo and evaluated its release kinetics in vitro. Then we evaluated P24 peptide release kinetics from different concentration of PTMC11-F127-PTMC11 hydrogel in vitro using bicinchoninic acid (BCA)assay. P24/PTMC11-F127-PTMC11 hydrogel was implanted into each rat's erector muscle of spine and ectopic bone formation of the implanted gel in vivo was detected by hematoxylin and eosin stain (HE). PTMC11-F127-PTMC11 hydrogel with concentration more than 20 percent showed sustained slow release for one month after the initial burst release. Bone trabeculae surround the P24/PTMC11-F127-PTMC11 hydrogel was shown at the end of six weeks by hematoxylin and eosin stain. These results indicated that encapsulated bone morphogenetic protein (BMP-2) derived peptide P24 remained viable in vivo, thus suggesting the potential of PTMC11-F127-PTMC11 composite hydrogels as part of a novel strategy for localized delivery of bioactive molecules.
Objective To review the research progress on the role of Schwann cells in regulating bone regeneration. MethodsThe domestic and foreign literature about the behavior of Schwann cells related to bone regeneration, multiple tissue repair ability, nutritional effects of their neurotrophic factor network, and their application in bone tissue engineering was extensively reviewed. ResultsAs a critical part of the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells regulate the expression level of various neurotrophic factors and growth factors through the paracrine effect, and participates in the tissue regeneration and differentiation process of non-neural tissues such as blood vessels and bone, reflecting the nutritional effect of neural-vascular-bone integration. ConclusionTaking full advantage of the multipotent differentiation ability of Schwann cells in nerve, blood vessel, and bone tissue regeneration may provide novel insights for clinical application of tissue engineered bone.
Objective
To review the recent advances in the application of graphene oxide (GO) for bone tissue engineering.
Methods
The latest literature at home and abroad on the GO used in the bone regeneration and repair was reviewed, including general properties of GO, degradation performance, biocompatibility, and application in bone tissue engineering.
Results
GO has an abundance of oxygen-containing functionalities, high surface area, and good biocompatibility. In addition, it can promote stem cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Moreover, GO has many advantages in the construction of new composite scaffolds and improvement of the performance of traditional scaffolds.
Conclusion
GO has been a hot topic in the field of bone tissue engineering due to its excellent physical and chemical properties. And many problems still need to be solved.
As a worldwide challenge in the field of neurosurgery, there is no effective treatment method for pediatric skull defects repair in clinic. Currently clinical used cranioplasty materials couldn’t undergo adjustment in response to skull growth and deformation. An ideal material for pediatric cranioplasty should fulfill the requirements of achieving complete closure, good osseointegration, biodegradability and conformability, sufficient cerebral protection and optimal aesthetic, and functional restoration of calvaria. Biomimetic mineralized collagen-based bone material is a kind of material that simulates the microstructural unit of natural bone on the nanometer scale. Because of its high osteogenic activity, it is widely used in repair of all kinds of bone defects. Recently, the biomimetic mineralized collagen-based bone materials have successfully been applied for cranial regeneration and repair with satisfactory results. This review mainly introduces the characteristics of the biomimetic mineralized collagen-based bone materials, the advantages for the repair of pediatric skull defects, and the related progresses.
In bone tissue engineering, fabrication of scaffold materials that are biodegradable with regenerative functions is one of the most important research fields. Silk fibroin exhibits many favorable characteristics used as scaffold materials. Among them, hybrid silk fibroin/inorganic composites prepared by biomimetic mineralization have better biocompatibility, biomechanical properties, and biodegradability. At the same time, the hybrid silk fibroin/inorganic materials have much better osteoinduction and conduction properties than silk fibroin. Here, the recent advances in the preparation of silk fibroin/silica hybrid materials by combination or biomimetic silicification are reviewed, and the future research prospects of silicification of silk fibroin are discussed.