Biomimetic 3D Scaffolds for Bone and Dental Pulp Tissue Regeneration
Loss of dental and craniofacial tissues due to disease, injury or genetic disorders negatively affects the quality of life of millions of Americans. Presently, the gold standard in clinical treatment for craniofacial bone defects is autografts and demineralized bone matrix (DBM). Autografts perform exceptionally well, but are known to induce donor site morbidity and DBMs poorly induce regeneration of lost tissue. With respect to treatment for injury/trauma or loss of the dental pulp, current clinical procedure is to use fillers such as mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) that do not permit regeneration of the lost pulp tissue. Tissue engineering has the potential to overcome these deficiencies. However, problems associated with growth factor delivery and control of stem cell behavior over time has proved to be a significant challenge.
Description/Details
UIC inventors have developed a 3D biomimetic collagen/chitosan scaffold that provides a cell-instructive structural framework for inducing differentiation of stem cells into osteogenic cells. This porous 3D matrix has increaded stiffness which can facilitate its use in load-bearing bone tissue engineering. These scaffolds can also be designed for use in dental pulp tissue regeneration. Initial analysis of these scaffolds also indicate they will be able to induce differentiation of human marrow stromal cells into osteogenic lineage without growth factors or differentiating agents.
Applications
- Dental tissue regeneration
- Craniofacial tissue regeneration
Benefits
- May eliminate growth factor delivery from tissue engineering applications
- Biocompatible and biodegradable scaffolds that are immunologically inert
- Differentiation can be patient specific using their own isolated cells, reducing risk of rejection