Identification and Optimisation of Atomic Scale Influences on Cell Response to Novel Bioactive Glass and Nanocomposite Tissue Scaffolds

拟议项目的目的是开发新的支架材料作为骨再生的成骨模板，这可能在该领域的医疗保健革命中发挥关键作用。该项目是材料科学、物理学和生物学的交叉学科。新型纳米复合材料（硅酸钙/聚合物）将被开发出来，在纳米尺度上模拟骨的结构，在纳米尺度上，骨是胶原蛋白（聚合物）和骨矿物质（陶瓷）的纳米复合材料，在宏观尺度上，松质骨具有大孔网络。通过本项目，将首次研究纳米和原子尺度结构的变化对这些新材料和生物活性玻璃（硅酸钙）支架骨细胞反应的影响。支架将从原子到宏观尺度进行优化，以促进骨骼生长。这种支架将基于生物活性溶胶凝胶衍生的玻璃，它与骨骼结合并溶解在体内，释放离子产物，刺激新骨骼的生长。纳米复合材料有望达到同样的效果，尽管人们对这两种材料的纳米结构如何影响细胞反应知之甚少。本提案试图纠正这一点，通过：1)使用尖端的表征技术，如核磁共振。同步加速器源x射线衍射（XRD）和中子衍射（ND），研究加工变量（如最终加工温度和聚合物含量）对支架纳米结构和力学性能的影响。这些技术不仅将得到很好的应用，而且还将探索新的途径，包括17O和43Ca MAS NMR（后者的研究很少），现场XRD实时检查非晶结构的结构发展和精确的同位素ND差异实验2)研究纳米级结构变化对降解和生物活性的影响，以及3)量化改变支架的纳米结构如何影响体外骨生长。关于无定形硅酸钙结构的生物活性机制将被澄清。

The aim of the proposed project is to develop new scaffold materials as osteogenic templates for bone regeneration that could play a key role in revolutionising healthcare in this area. The project is at the interface of Materials Science, Physics and Biology. Novel nanocomposites (calcium silicate/ polymer) will be developed that mimic the structure of bone both at the nanoscale, where bone is a nanoscale composite of collagen (polymer) and bone mineral (ceramic), and at the macroscale, where cancellous bone has a network of macropores. Through this project, the influence of changes in nano and atomic scale structure on bone cell response of these new materials and bioactive glass (calcium silicate) scaffolds will be investigated for the first time. The scaffolds will be optimised from atomic to the macro scale for bone growth. The scaffolds will be based on bioactive sol-gel derived glasses that bond to bone and dissolve in the body, releasing ionic products that stimulate new bone growth. The nanocomposites are expected to do the same although little is known about how the nanostructure of the either material affects cell response. This proposal seeks to rectify this by:1) Using cutting-edge characterisation techniques, such as NMR. synchrotron source X-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron diffraction (ND), to investigate how processing variables (e.g. final processing temperature and polymer content) affect the scaffold nanostructure and mechanical properties. Not only will well developed aspects of these techniques be employed, but new avenues will be explored to include 17O and 43Ca MAS NMR (the latter of which is little studied), in situ XRD to examine the structural developments of the amorphous structure in real time and precise isotope ND difference experiments2) Investigating the effect of nanoscale structural changes on degradation and bioactivity, and3) quantifying how changing the nanostructure of the scaffolds affects in vitro bone growth. Mechanisms of bioactivity with respect to the amorphous calcium-silicate structure will be clarified.