Inductive Microenvironment for Improved Osseous Integration
Abstract
The ultimate goal of tissue engineering is to address the current organ shortage problem, i.e. development of an alternative therapeutic strategy to autografting and allografting. Several approaches are currently been used to regenerate damaged tissue using the principles of tissue engineering. Among these, scaffold based tissue engineering wherein, biomaterials are used alone or in combination with cells and biologically active molecules is one of the most attractive and extensively investigated approaches. One of the most important challenges is to ensure proper in vivo performance of the engineered cell-scaffold constructs under challenging microenvironmental conditions of inflammation characteristic of damaged tissues. This calls for the development of cell instructive regenerative biomaterial structures that can communicate with host cells via multiple regulatory signals. The present research project aims to investigate the ability of an injectable matrix from a biodegradable polymer "Chitosan' in modulating the host tissue microenvironment to promote regeneration. The overall objective of this study is to develop strategies to improve regeneration of critical size bone defects by creating an optimized inductive microenvironment using an injectable chitosan carrier with cells and rhBMP-2 alone or in combination. The report discusses the studies we performed over the past one year towards evaluating injectable compositions from chitosans of different degree of acetylations in vitro using mouse macrophages and in vivo using mouse calvarial and segmental bone defect model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA578636
Entities
People
- David W Rowe
- Douglas E. Adams
- Lakshmi S. Nair
- Peter Maye
Organizations
- University of Connecticut Health Center