Engineers develop new biomaterial for printing bone implants

EngineersDevelopNewBiomaterialForPrintingBoneImplants
Engineers have developed a new material made from hydroxyapatite and a biocompatible polymer for 3D printing bone implants

Original source: Materials Today

A team of engineers at Northwestern University has developed a 3D printable ink for producing a synthetic bone implant that rapidly induces bone regeneration and growth. This hyperelastic ‘bone’ material, whose shape can be easily customized, could one day prove especially useful for treating bone defects in children.

Bone implantation surgery is never an easy process, but it is particularly painful and complicated for children. When treating both adults and children, bone is often harvested from elsewhere in the body to replace the missing bone, which can lead to other complications and pain. Metallic implants are sometimes used, but this is not a permanent fix for growing children.

“Adults have more options when it comes to implants,” said Ramille Shah, who led the research. “Pediatric patients do not. If you give them a permanent implant, you have to do more surgeries in the future as they grow. They might face years of difficulty.”

Shah and her team aim to change the nature of bone implants, and they particularly want to help pediatric patients. Shah is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and also of surgery in the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

In this new study, reported in Science Translational Medicine, Shah and her team evaluated the material with human stem cells and within animal models. Adam Jakus, a postdoctoral fellow in Shah’s laboratory, is the paper’s first author.

Shah’s 3D printed biomaterial is a mix of hydroxyapatite (a calcium mineral found naturally in human bone) and a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer that is used in many medical applications, including sutures. The biomaterial is hyperelastic, robust and porous at the nano, micro and macro levels, and has already shown great promise in in vivo animal models.

“Porosity is huge when it comes to tissue regeneration, because you want cells and blood vessels to infiltrate the scaffold,” Shah said. “Our 3D structure has different levels of porosity that is advantageous for its physical and biological properties.”

While hydroxyapatite has been proven to induce bone regeneration, it is also notoriously tricky to work with. Clinical products that use hydroxyapatite or other calcium phosphate ceramics are hard and brittle. To compensate for that, previous researchers created structures composed mostly of polymers, but this limits the activity of the bioceramic. In contrast, Shah’s bone biomaterial comprises 90% hydroxyapatite and just 10% polymer, by weight, yet still maintains its elasticity because of the way its structure is designed and printed. The high concentration of hydroxyapatite in the biomaterial creates an environment that induces rapid bone regeneration.

“Cells can sense the hydroxyapatite and respond to its bioactivity,” Shah said. “When you put stem cells on our scaffolds, they turn into bone cells and start to up-regulate their expression of bone specific genes. This is in the absence of any other osteo-inducing substances. It’s just the interaction between the cells and the material itself.”

That’s not to say that other substances couldn’t be incorporated into the ink. As the 3D printing process is performed at room temperature, Shah’s team was able to incorporate other elements, such as antibiotics, into the ink.

“We can incorporate antibiotics to reduce the possibility of infection after surgery,” Shah said. “We also can combine the ink with different types of growth factors, if needed, to further enhance regeneration. It’s really a multi-functional material.”

One of the biggest advantages, however, is that the end product can be customized to the patient. In traditional bone transplant surgeries, the bone – after it’s taken from another part of the body – has to be shaped and molded to exactly fit the area where it is needed. Using Shah’s synthetic material, physicians would be able to scan the patient’s body and then print a personalized product that exactly matches the scan. Alternatively, due to its mechanical properties, the biomaterial can also be easily trimmed and cut to size and shape. This is not only faster but also less painful than using autograft material.

Shah imagines that hospitals may one day have 3D printers that can print customized implants while the patient waits. “The turnaround time for an implant that’s specialized for a customer could be within 24 hours,” Shah said. “That could change the world of craniofacial and orthopedic surgery, and, I hope, will improve patient outcomes.”

This story is adapted from material from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.