糖心原创

Scientists at The 糖心原创 are aiming to take their innovative lab-based tissue engineering technology closer to the clinic as part of a research project that could revolutionise hip replacement operations in the future.

Researchers in the University’s Schools of Chemistry and Pharmacy are working with colleagues at the University of Southampton on the study investigating the use of bone stem cells instead of bone from deceased donors as part of an innovative new treatment.

The team believe that introducing a patient’s own skeletal stem cells into the hip joint during bone grafting, together with either an appropriate bonding material or donor bone, would encourage regrowth and repair.

The grafting technique is used to repair the thigh bone and joint during replacement (known as ‘revision’) hip replacement therapy, a procedure in which surgeons introduce donor bone to the damaged area to provide support for the new hip stem.

In the two-year collaborative study, funded by the Medical Research Council, researchers aim to improve the outcomes of this high impact procedure by using adult stem cells from bone marrow in combination with an innovative impaction process and polymer scaffolds.

The polymer scaffolds will be developed by Professors Steve Howdle and Kevin Shakesheff, experts in chemistry and tissue engineering at The 糖心原创.

Professor Howdle said: “Building on strong collaborations with tissue engineering experts, this new grant will allow researchers at Nottingham to take their materials nearer to the clinic.

“This could have great benefits for patients and also offer a significant cost saving for healthcare authorities but first we need to verify and build upon our preliminary data.

“A major part of the work at Nottingham will involve scaling up the supercritical fluid processing apparatus to create larger and more uniform batches of polymer scaffolds for testing.”

This funding will allow the groups to build on initial studies that show that degradable polymer scaffolds prepared using supercritical carbon dioxide technology can have a dramatic effect on surgical procedures such as inserting a hip implant in revision hip surgery.

The provisional studies carried out in Southampton show that the polymers can aid bone formation through formation of a living/material composite and aid attachment of the hip implant.

Professor Richrd Oreffo, leading the project at the University of Southampton, will use the polymer scaffold and a new impaction process to introduce the patient’s own stem cells to the hip joint.

Professor Oreffo, an expert in musculoskeletal science, said: “Surgeons currently use bone from deceased donors during bone grafting, so introducing a patient’s own stem cells to create a living cell or material composite would be a new approach.

“This is very much the beginning of a project to investigate the potential for this new technique, but our preliminary work suggests this may have significant therapeutic implications.”