This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Newly developed two-layer scaffold may regenerate cartilage and bone
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and Cambridge University in Cambridge, England, have created a new two-layer osteochondral scaffold, which they say could provide another option for patients with sports injuries and cartilage damage.
“If someone had a damaged region in the cartilage, you could remove the cartilage and the bone below it and put our scaffold in the hole,” Lorna J. Gibson, PhD, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Material Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-leader of the research team with William Bonfield, CBE, FRS, of Cambridge University, said in a press release.
The researchers detailed the design and development of the osteochondral scaffold in a soon-to-be published series of articles in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.
The two-layer scaffold consists of one layer that simulates bone and another that mimics cartilage. It also features a gradual transition between the layers.
“We tried to design it so it is similar to the transition in the body,” Gibson said in the press release. “That is one of the unique things about it.”
After implantation into the joint, the scaffold prompts mesenchymal stem cells in the bone marrow to generate bone and cartilage. Currently, the scaffold can only be used for small defects, according to the press release.
The ability of the scaffold to stimulate bone and cartilage growth in the knee was demonstrated in a goat study with 16-weeks follow-up.
The researchers began the project looking to build a scaffold to simply regrow bone. They relied on an existing method to make a skin scaffold composed of collagen and glycosaminoglycan.
By adding sources of calcium and phosphate, they developed a new method to mineralize the collagen scaffold. This process allowed them to simulate bone, according to the press release. They then decided to develop the two-layer scaffold in an attempt to regrow cartilage and bone.
The technology has been licensed to OrthoMimetics, which has recently begun clinical trials using the scaffolds in Europe. The company’s chief executive officer, Andrew K. Lynn, PhD, is also a collaborator on the project.
For more information:
References:
- Harley BA, Lynn AK, Wissner-Gross Z, et al. Design of a multiphase osteochondral scaffold. II. Fabrication of a mineralized collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffold. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2009 Mar 19. Epub ahead of print.
- Harley BA, Lynn AK, Wissner-Gross Z, et al. Design of a multiphase osteochondral scaffold III: Fabrication of layered scaffolds with continuous interfaces. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2009 Mar 19. Epub ahead of print.
- Lynn AK, Best SM, Cameron RE, et al. Design of a multiphase osteochondral scaffold. I. Control of chemical composition. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2009 Mar 19. Epub ahead of print.