Polymer/Ceramic Composites for Tissue Engineering

描述（由申请人提供）：组织工程已经发展成为一个真正的跨学科领域，承诺恢复或替换受损或丢失的人体组织/器官。组织工程被定义为应用生物、化学和工程原理，利用生物材料、细胞和因子单独或组合来修复、恢复或再生活组织。组织工程产品的主要组成部分是含/不含因子的三维支架和合适的细胞。骨组织工程需要具有最佳性能的支架，包括强度、韧性、孔隙度、降解率可控、降解产物无毒、炎症反应最小、可塑性、骨导电性和骨诱导性。在本研究中，我们将重点开发具有最佳骨组织工程性能的新型三维复合支架。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。我们假设这些3d复合材料结合了聚磷腈的可控制降解率、生物相容性和骨导电性与透明质酸的生物活性，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。

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.