The Design and Development of Bone Assist Devices to Aid and Enhance Bone Tissue Regeneration

骨质疏松症的患病率随着人口老龄化而增加，并且存在直接的临床需要来解决与直接影响脆性骨折恢复的疾病相关的骨再生不良的问题。这些问题在位于外肢和桡骨的骨折部位的治疗中尤其相关，这些部位的不良修复会导致疼痛加剧，活动性降低和生活质量降低。为了解决这个问题，我们提出开发一种可生物降解的多层电纺膜，用于通过引导骨再生（GBR）治疗骨缺损，其将通过产生抗微生物/抗微生物层（AL）而使细菌感染最小化，并通过结合表面工程化生物功能层（FL）来支持骨生成。FL将具有可调节的亚微米限定的表面化学、形貌和刚度分布，通过将定制的-NH 2呈现聚合物刷生长到下面的电纺（AL）基质上来提供，所述基质将掺杂有抗微生物剂，从而产生具有可控的机械和抗微生物特性的下面的结构。这些层的组合将产生骨辅助器械，其将GBR产品提升为直接植入的生物活性可降解合成器械，通过增强对初始生物相互作用的控制，减少由于骨形成不良和随后的重塑而导致的感染和失效的发生。这些设备可以进行优化，以在一系列临床场景中发挥作用。

The prevalence of osteoporosis is increasing with an ageing population and there is a direct clinical need to tackle the issue of poor bone regeneration associated with the disease that directly affects recovery from fragility fractures. These issues are especially relevant in the treatment of fracture sites located at the outer extremities and radius, and poor repair at these sites can lead to enhanced pain, decreased mobility and a reduction in the quality of life.To address this issue, we propose to develop a biodegradable multilayer electrospun membrane for treatments of bone defects via Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR), which will minimize bacterial infection via the production of an antifouling/antimicrobial layer (AL) and support osteogenesis with the incorporation a surface engineered biologically functional layer (FL).The FL will have tuneable sub-micron defined surface chemistry, topography and stiffness profiles, provided by the growth of bespoke -NH2 presenting polymer brushes onto the underlying electrospun (AL) matrix which will be doped with anti-microbial agents, resulting in an underlying structure that has controllable mechanical and anti-microbial properties. The combination of these layers will result in Bone Aid devices that will elevate the GBR products to directly implantable biologically active degradable synthetic devices that will reduce occurrences of infection and failure due to poor bone formation and subsequent remodelling via enhanced control of the initial biological interactions. These devices can be optimised to function in an array of clinical scenarios.