Engineer development towards a bone tissue intermediate.

Bone tissue engineering aims at repairing non-healing bone defects by stimulating local and/or systemic regeneration mechanisms. The current strategy, applied for the last two decades, focuses on seeding embryonal, mesenchymal or progenitor cells on biocompatible carrier structures, sometimes in combination with growth factors. However, up to date this strategy has led to a limited bone formation with an unpredictable clinical outcome. In this project we propose an innovative strategy that aims to mimic more closely the physiological bone formation process, named developmental engineering. In this strategy robust bone forming units, following either the intramembranous or the endochondral pathway, will be intelligently assembled in a macrocarrier and manufactured in vitro by modular culturing protocols before implantation in vivo. The proposed macrocarrier structure, designed to improve mass transport, will allow for initial bone formation to occur in the individual units and subsequently for triggering of the interaction between the units. Various types of bone forming units will be combined as to obtain a genuine bone tissue intermediate. Robustness and modularity of the proposed manufacturing protocols are essential aspects and benefits of the developmental engineering approach, ultimately allowing us to increase the predictability of the clinical outcome of the bone tissue engineering process.

Keywords:Musculoskeletal, Developmental engineering, Tissue engineering

Disciplines:Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering, Orthopaedics, Systems biology