Accelerating Early-Stage Bone Regeneration with Lorentz Force-Driven Interstitial Fluid Flow
Abstract
This project fits the 2020 PRMRP topic area of Musculoskeletal Health. The goal of this project is to develop a new implantable device that can effectively study, in live animals, why and how mechanical forces and body fluid flow can affect healing of severe bone fractures. The same technology can later be adapted to become a therapeutic device to improve the outcomes of bone injury treatments. Studies have shown that mechanical loadings, such as those from physical activities, are beneficial to the recovery of bone injuries. However, further research with bone cells show that the mechanical loadings of such activities would not cause cell to react. In response to these conflicting results, there have been suggestions that bone cells may not actually respond to the mechanical loading at the bone, but instead react to the body fluid flow caused by the loading. However, there has not been a lot of research to validate this suggestion and develop a more effective treatment because of the challenge to independently study the effects of fluid flow in animal or human – there is no technology today that can provide a controllable way to generate fluid flow in bone tissues within a living subject without also generating mechanical loading. The goal of this project is to develop a new technology that can do just that. The technology is an implantable bone plate that generates an electric current and a magnetic field, causing the body fluid to flow across the gap of a bone fracture site without mechanically compressing, straining, or pressuring the tissue. The flow rate, direction, and frequency of the flow can be easily controlled by altering the magnetic field and/or electric current. To our knowledge, there is no such technology that can do that. Through this technology, researchers can study what is the effect of fluid flow on bone healing, and if so, how can it be used to develop an effective treatment for bone fractures. For example, even it is known that physical activities are useful for bone healing, today a patient has to wait for a period before starting the physical therapy because mechanical loading can damage the newly formed bones. However, we believe that by using the fluid flow implant developed from this project, the patients can receive the benefits of fluid flow without worrying about damaging the newly formed bones. This project is a great demonstration of how a novel technology can allow further study of diseases and injuries, and eventually will lead to improvement in human health.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 05, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2110179
Entities
People
- Keat Ong
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Oregon