3:58 AM
McGhori
The marvels of modern medicine meld with cutting-edge technology in creating scaffold-like material to repair injured bones.
Technology has brought about a new “bone fide” approach to repairing bone injuries. The marvels of modern medicine have come together with cutting edge technology, resulting in the use of a 3D printer to create bone-like material that can be added to injured natural bone, acting as a scaffold for new cells to grow.
Researchers from Washington State University say that the substance eventually dissolves and causes “no apparent ill-effects.” Better yet, within just a few years, they claim that physicians will likely have the ability to custom-order replacement bone tissue, and serve up new bones for the bone-weary.
The report on the new process, recently published in the Dental Materials journal, was co-authored by Professor Susmita Bose who pointed out, “You can use the bone-like ceramic powder as a feed material and it can make whatever you draw on the computer.” She went on to explain, “It is mostly [suitable for] low load bearing applications. However, what we are trying to develop is the controlled degradation of these scaffolds where as the scaffold dissolves in the body the bone tissue grows over it.”
The printed material not only looks and feels like an actual human bone, but even acts like bone. This bone-growing substance has been in the making for four years. The perfecting of the miraculous printing process came when the researchers discovered that they could double the strength of calcium phosphate, the main ceramic powder in the mix, by adding in silica and zinc oxide.
By customizing a printer originally intended for creating three-dimensional metal objects, the research team was able to create scaffold shapes by using the printer to spray a plastic binder over the loose powder in thin layers of 20 microns, which is just half the thickness of the width of a human hair. After the layering process, the scaffold was dried, cleaned and baked for two hours at 1250C (2282F).
Then it was time for lab testing. When the substance was used on immature fetal bone cells, new bone-cell growth began over the scaffold within just one week of being attached. Further testing on live rats and rabbits has also shown great promise.
Because the printer can print just about anything that can be drawn on the computer, the procedure could be used in many applications ranging from orthopedics to orthodontics, and even help in the treatment of osteoporosis.
Dr. Bose speculates, “The way I envision it is that ten to twenty years down the line, physicians and surgeons should be able to use these bone scaffolds along with some bone growth factors, whether it is for jawbone fixation or spinal fusion fixation.” She further noted, “If a doctor has a CT (computer tomography) scan of a defect, we can convert it to a CAD (computer-aided design) file and make the scaffold according to the defect.”
However, such a leap forward in medical technology does not come without a custom price. Even so, the numbers are encouraging. While it may an arm and a leg to replace the printer cartridges, Dr. Bose said that the process will actually cost only about one-tenth of more traditional techniques.
Posted in: HEALTH
