Microengineered platforms for bone cell biomechanics study

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At least 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will break a bone in their lifetime. Bone fracture, in many cases, must be treated surgically by replacing the fractured bone with a new structure. There is a great need in creating functional living replacement bone using tissue engineering approach- growing living bone tissue from a cell-populated biodegradable polymeric scaffold. One major challenge of this approach is the maintenance of the tissue. It has been shown that mechanical loading is critical for bone maintenance via regulation of bone cell function. Conventional biomechanical testing systems have been used to study mechanical regulation of bone cell. However, bone cells in these systems grow in an environment that lacks of many key mechanical characteristics of their natural environment. The validity of the conclusions drawn from these experiments is questionable and their potential for translation to bone tissue engineering design is hence greatly limited.