Polymer/Ceramic Composites for Tissue Engineering

描述(申请人提供)：组织工程学已经发展成为一个真正的跨学科领域，提供重振或替换受损或丢失的人体组织/器官的承诺。组织工程被定义为应用生物、化学和工程学原理，单独或联合使用生物材料、细胞和因子来修复、恢复或再生活组织。组织工程产品的主要成分是有无因子的三维支架和合适的细胞。骨组织工程要求支架具有最佳的性能，包括强度、韧性、孔隙率、受控降解速率、无毒降解产物、最小的炎症反应、可成型性、骨传导性和骨诱导性。在拟议的工作中，我们将专注于开发具有最佳性能的新型三维(3D)复合支架，用于骨组织工程。复合基质将由基于聚磷腈和羟基磷灰石(HA)的新型聚合物制成。我们推测，这些三维复合材料将聚磷腈的受控降解率、生物相容性和骨传导性与HA的生物活性结合在一起，最终可以模拟骨的生物和力学性能，而骨本身就是一种复合材料。 总体目标是设计和开发具有可控的物理化学和生物特性的三维支架，这将成为当前骨修复材料的实用替代品。这一目标将通过以下具体目标实现： 具体目标1：新型可生物降解聚磷腈的设计、合成和表征，具有适当的热、生物和机械性能，可与羟基磷灰石一起加工形成三维基质。 具体目标2：开发新型三维聚磷腈-羟基磷灰石复合材料基质，并利用体外技术评价复合材料的生物和机械性能。 具体目标3：使用体内技术评价新型三维复合基质的生物学性能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tissue engineering has developed into a truly interdisciplinary field offering promises to revitalize or replace damaged or lost human tissue/organs. Tissue engineering has been defined as the application of biological, chemical and engineering principles toward the repair, restoration or regeneration of living tissue using biomaterials, cells and factors alone or in combination. The major components of tissue engineered products are the three dimensional scaffold with/without factors and the appropriate cells. Bone tissue engineering requires scaffolds with optimal properties that include strength, toughness, porosity, controlled rate of degradation, non-toxic degradation products, minimal inflammatory response, moldability, osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity. In the proposed work, we will focus on the development of novel three-dimensional (3-D) composite scaffolds with optimal properties for bone tissue engineering. Composite matrices will be made from novel polymers based on polyphosphazenes and hydroxyapatite (HA). We hypothesize that these 3-D composites, which combine the controlled degradation rate, biocompatibility and osteoconductivity of polyphosphazenes with the bioactivity of HA, can eventually mimic the biological and mechanical properties of bone, which itself is a composite. The overall goal is to design and develop three-dimensional scaffolds with controlled physico-chemical and biological properties that will be a practical alternative to current bone repair materials. This goal will be achieved via the following specific aims: Specific Aim 1: The design, synthesis, and characterization of novel biodegradable polyphosphazenes with appropriate thermal, biological and mechanical properties that can be processed with HA to form 3-dimensional matrices. Specific Aim 2: Development of novel 3-dimensional polyphosphazene-HA based composite matrices and evaluation of the biological and mechanical properties of the composites using in vitro techniques. Specific Aim 3: Evaluation of the biological performance of novel 3-D composite matrices using in vivo techniques.