US-Australia Collaborative Research: Research Planning and proof-of-concept study of macrophage-scaffold interactions

在美国，每年有600万例骨折发生，其中5%-10%的骨折由于骨质丢失、固定失败、感染和血管生成不足而无法充分愈合。使用能够利用身体优势促进骨再生的生物材料？S自己的自然愈合能力将绕过所有与自体和同种异体移植相关的问题。骨科植入物用于修复和再生负重应用中的大型骨缺损的关键挑战是在材料性能、种植体结构和生物活性之间取得适当的平衡，以满足骨组织的功能和再生需求。澳大利亚悉尼大学的Hala Zreiqat博士和Roohani-Esfahani博士在实现这一目标方面取得了重大进展，他们开发了一种新的多组分陶瓷，该陶瓷可以在孔隙率(80%-95%)、孔径(300-500um)以及独特的机械强度方面模拟骨骼。这些支架导致了广泛的新骨形成，完全桥接了兔严重的放射状缺损。然而，将生物材料植入受损的骨中会影响炎症反应细胞的行为，特别是巨噬细胞，从而影响新骨的再生。这项建议的主要研究重点是巨噬细胞的行为如何决定组织的再生。鉴于巨噬细胞和炎症反应对所有组织修复的重要性，这项工作的结果广泛适用于任何组织的工程。此外，该项目还将促进美国和澳大利亚工程专业学生和教师之间的跨文化交流。这个项目的五个参与者中有三个是女工程师。

In the United States, 6 million bone fractures occur annually, and 5-10% of these fractures fail to heal adequately due to bone loss, failed fixation, infection, and inadequate vascularization. The use of biomaterials that can promote bone regeneration by taking advantage of the body?s own natural healing ability would bypass all of the problems associated with autografts and allografts. The key challenge in developing orthopedic implants for the repair and regeneration of large bone defects in load-bearing applications is to strike the right balance between material properties, implant architecture and bioactivity to satisfy the functional and regenerative requirements of bone tissue. Dr. Hala Zreiqat and Dr. Roohani-Esfahani at the University of Sydney in Australia have made major advances towards achieving this goal through the development of a new multi-component ceramic that can mimic bone in porosity (80-95%), pore diameter (300-500um) and, uniquely, mechanical strength. These scaffolds caused extensive new bone formation with complete bridging of critically sized radial defects in rabbits. However, implantation of biomaterials into injured bone affects the behavior of the cells of the inflammatory response, especially macrophages, with resulting effects on new bone regeneration. The main research focus of this proposal is how the behavior of macrophages dictates tissue regeneration.Given the importance of macrophages and the inflammatory response for the repair of all tissues, the results of this work are broadly applicable for engineering of any tissue. In addition, this project will promote cross-cultural exchange between American and Australian engineering students and faculty. Three of the five participants in this project are women engineers.