The fabrication of complex structures using biodegradable polymerised high internal phase emulsion (PolyHIPE) scaffolds for targeted drug delivery

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

There are a variety of unmet clinical needs in oral medicine that would benefit from direct delivery of therapeutic molecules to a specific site, including medication induced osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). This condition leads to the development lesions in oral soft tissues that expose the underlying bone, which is then infected by a range of pathogenic microorganisms, causing pain and reducing quality of life. These lesions are effectively untreatable, and current work in the School of Clinical Dentistry has been directed at the fabrication of prostheses to protect the site from further injury. The aim of this project is to advance this research beyond protection to delivery of therapeutic agents to eliminate the infection and promote tissue regeneration. The supervisors have recently developed a number of biodegradable porous materials based on polyHIPEs, and demonstrated that it is suitable for additive manufacturing to create complex/custom shapes. In previous work we produced polyHIPE microspheres for bone tissue engineering and we have also combined polyHIPEs with electrospinning to produce a guided bone regeneration membrane. This biomaterial system provides a very high surface area:volume ratio on account of the generation of a highly microporous surface using a polyHIPE approach, and it is biocompatible and already used in bulk in medical applications.