Microengineered platforms for bone cell biomechanics study

至少1/3的女性和1/5的男性会在一生中骨折。骨折，在许多情况下，必须手术治疗，用新的结构替换骨折的骨头。使用组织工程学的方法--从细胞填充的可生物降解的聚合物支架中生长活的骨组织--创造具有功能的活的替代骨是非常有必要的。这种方法的一个主要挑战是组织的维护。已有研究表明，机械负荷通过调节骨细胞功能对骨维持起着至关重要的作用。传统的生物力学测试系统已被用来研究骨细胞的力学调节。然而，这些系统中的骨细胞生长在缺乏其自然环境的许多关键机械特征的环境中。从这些实验得出的结论的有效性是值得怀疑的，因此它们转化为骨组织工程设计的潜力是非常有限的。

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.