Tribological Stimulation of Agarose/Chondrocyte Constructs for Tissue Engineering Applications

用于组织工程应用的琼脂糖/软骨细胞结构的摩擦学刺激

• 批准号: 1660-2013
• 负责人: Medley, John
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=638432
• 关键词: Tribological; Stimulation; Agarose; Chondrocyte; Constructs

About 4 million Canadians have osteoarthritic damage to the articular cartilage surfaces of one or more of their joints. For some, this age-related disease progresses slowly without much restriction to their activities but in others it rapidly reaches an end-stage condition where mobility is severely impaired and the joint itself is totally destroyed. The only current treatment is to replace the joint with an inert, somewhat less functional, implant. Each year, about 80,000 joints are replaced in Canada. Tissue engineering research is trying to develop repair/regeneration procedures for damage joint surfaces. It may eventually be possible to delay or even prevent osteoarthritis in a significant number of patients. One approach is to grow articular cartilage constructs and surgically patch the damaged joint surfaces in the early stages of the disease. A major problem with this approach is the difficulty in growing constructs that have the strength and lubrication protection found in healthy articular cartilage. As a result, animal experiments have shown that these constructs, especially if large, have increasing difficulty in surviving in the joint for the long term.The proposed research program addresses this problem with a hydromechanical stimulator device that acts on the construct surface while it is growing to impose compression, shear, friction and nutrient-rich fluid flow. These types of stimulation have each been shown to be effective in improving construct strength and lubrication protection. This stimulator device has been designed, built and used in pilot studies to stimulate cartilage cells in an agarose polymer construct that is mechanically similar to articular cartilage.The proposed research program will perform extensive testing in order to understand and optimize the stimulation performance. Then, the more complicated problem of using the stimulation to help grow articular cartilage constructs will be studied. If successful, this research will contribute to a highly effective and more natural approach to treating osteoarthritis.

大约有400万加拿大人的一个或多个关节的关节软骨表面有骨关节炎损伤。对于一些人来说，这种与年龄有关的疾病进展缓慢，对他们的活动没有太多限制，但在另一些人中，它迅速达到终末期状态，其中活动性严重受损，关节本身完全被破坏。目前唯一的治疗方法是用一种惰性的、功能稍差的植入物代替关节。加拿大每年约有8万个关节被更换。组织工程研究正试图开发损伤关节表面的修复/再生程序。它最终有可能延缓甚至预防大量患者的骨关节炎。一种方法是在疾病的早期阶段生长关节软骨结构并手术修补受损的关节表面。这种方法的一个主要问题是难以生长具有健康关节软骨中发现的强度和润滑保护的结构。因此，动物实验表明，这些结构，特别是如果大，有越来越多的困难，在联合中长期生存。拟议的研究计划解决了这个问题，作用于结构表面的流体力学刺激器设备，而它正在增长施加压缩，剪切，摩擦和营养丰富的流体流动。这些类型的刺激均被证明可有效提高结构强度和润滑保护。该刺激器装置已被设计、制造并用于试点研究，以刺激琼脂糖聚合物结构中的软骨细胞，该结构在机械上类似于关节软骨。拟议的研究计划将进行广泛的测试，以了解和优化刺激性能。然后，将研究使用刺激来帮助关节软骨结构生长的更复杂的问题。如果成功的话，这项研究将有助于一种非常有效和更自然的方法来治疗骨关节炎。