Treatment of critical size femoral bone defects with 3D plotted bone replacement materials
Projektleiter:
Dr. med. Stefan Zwingenberger
Laufzeit:
01.06.2016 - 31.12.2017
Projektbeschreibung:
Treatment of critical size bone defects is still very challenging. While operative strategies and techniques are highly developed, less is known about the biology of fracture repair. Modern technologies allow creating three dimensional (3D) reconstructions of a bony defect based on computed tomography or magnet resonant imaging. Scaffolds can be plotted by resorbable calcium phosphate cement. Major advantage of the calcium phosphate material is the high biomechanical stability. Scaffolds can also be plotted by mineralized collagen type I, with the advantage of high porosity and best osteoconductive properties. Disadvantage of mineralized collagen is that it is soft and has very low biomechanical stability. The 3D plotting technique allows also combining different materials like the calcium phosphate cement and mineralized collagen. Thereby a scaffold consisting of alternating strands made of calcium phosphate and mineralized collagen can be manufactured.
Hypothesis of this experiment is that a 3D plotted scaffolds created by a combination of calcium phosphate and mineralized collagen will improve defect healing compared to scaffolds only made by calcium phosphate or only made by mineralized collagen.
Therefore 52 12-week-old wistar rats will be randomized to 4 groups (group 1: control, group 2: mineralized collagen scaffold, group 3: calcium phosphate scaffold, group 4: combination of mineralized collagen and calcium phosphate scaffold).
Critical size bone defects of 5 mm length will be created at the right femur of each rat, stabilized by a locked plate and filled group dependent. After 6 weeks animals will be euthanized and bone volume, 3-point bending stiffness, bone metabolism, vascularization and histomorphometry will be investigated.
This project will be carried out within an established German basic scientist-clinician consortium. Given high-level experience for bone regeneration, scaffold production, and small animal models it will be possible to realize highest quality front line research.