Biomimetic Synthetic Grafts for Bone Regeneration and Epithelial Healing

全世界数百万患者因事故、癌症、感染或出生缺陷而遭受严重的皮肤和骨骼损伤。 这些疾病对患者的生活质量具有破坏性影响，通常危及生命，并导致医疗机构的高成本。目前，包括皮肤和骨骼（即四肢、面部）的身体部位的重建已经通过来自新鲜尸体的活组织的复杂外科移植而成为可能。虽然这项技术已经显示出巨大的潜力，但活体器官移植需要强有力的免疫抑制疗法，这大大缩短了患者的预期寿命。目前还没有人造材料设计用于再生涉及骨骼和皮肤的损伤。塔米米博士的研究计划旨在开发合成材料，以消除对尸体移植的需要。 为了制备这种材料，Tamimi博士将研究骨骼的化学成分如何影响其生物学行为。骨矿物质主要由钙和磷酸盐组成，然而，它还包括低浓度的许多其他元素，称为微量元素。微量元素在骨骼中的作用目前尚不清楚且尚无定论;然而，一些研究表明它们可能对骨骼再生有有用的影响。用于骨再生的合成材料由简单的成分组成，这些成分往往忽略了这些微量元素的潜在相关性。因此，在拟议的5年发现资助申请中，Tamimi博士将调查：i）微量元素在骨骼中的作用，并确定哪些元素可能对骨骼形成有积极影响（目的1）; ii）在合成材料中添加微量元素对骨再生的影响（目标2）;以及iii）将新开发的骨再生生物材料与用于皮肤愈合的合成膜相结合，产生适合于复杂损伤重建的复合材料涉及皮肤和骨骼（目标3）。

Millions of patients worldwide suffer from severe injuries involving skin and skeleton due to accidents, cancer, infection or birth defects. These conditions have devastating impact on the quality of life of the patients, are often life-threatening, and result in high costs to healthcare agencies. Currently, reconstruction of body parts that include skin and bone (i.e. limbs, face) has been made possible through complex surgical transplantation of living tissues from fresh cadavers. Although this technique has shown great potential, transplantation of living organs requires strong immunosuppressive therapies that reduce considerably the life expectancy of the patients. Currently there are no artificial materials designed to regenerate injuries involving both bone and skin. Dr. Tamimi's research program aims at developing synthetic materials that would eliminate the need for cadaver grafts. In order to prepare such materials, Dr Tamimi will investigate how the chemical composition of bone influences its biological behaviour. Bone mineral is mainly composed of calcium and phosphate, however, its also includes low concentrations of a wide range of many other elements known as trace elements. The role of trace elements in bone is currently not clear and inconclusive; however, some studies indicate that they may have useful effects on bone regeneration. Synthetic materials used for bone regeneration are made of simple components that often ignore the potential relevance of these trace elements. Accordingly, in the proposed 5-year discover grant application Dr Tamimi will investigate: i)the role of trace elements in bone and identify which elements may have a positive effect on bone formation (Objective 1); ii) the effect of adding trace elements to synthetic materials for bone regeneration (Objective 2); and iii) the combination of the newly developed bone regeneration biomaterials with synthetic membranes for skin healing resulting in compound materials suitable for reconstruction of complex injuries involving skin and bone (Objective 3).