DESCRIPTION

An Andalusian research group has developed a living tissue engineered construct which can be used in cell therapy for their use in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering surgery interventions. Tissue engineering aims at regenerating defective or lost tissue or organs, and signals a transition from the historically material-based approaches, in which mechanically stable, biocompatible materials were used, to focus on cell-based devices.

In the most frequent paradigm, cells are seeded on biocompatible scaffolds, a tissue is matured in vitro, and the construct is implanted in the appropriate anatomic location as a prosthesis. However, there are a number of problems related with the composition, the surface properties of the scaffold and the cell seeding procedures, including cell density, retention and spatial distribution within the scaffold, which eventually affects the functions of the construct.

The presented product is a construct based on the specificity of the material used which elicits that osteoprogenitor monodisperse cells attach spontaneously to the material using only their natural potential and assemble small units of the material to form three-dimensional (3D) cell-material aggregates. These cell-material aggregates maintain their viability in cultivation and are able to support cell differentiation to the appropriate phyenotype. The cells may comprise, animal cells including human cells osteoblast, fibroblasts, condroblast, mesenchymal stem cells, differentiate cells, progenitor cells, adult or embrionary stems cells.

The biomaterials is a mesostructured silica based powder, SBA-15 type, or a SBA-15 type based composite containing hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles.

The construct is particularly interesting for their application in reconstructive and regenerative surgery, orthopaedics, spinal surgery, oral and maxillofacial interventions. For their applications in cell therapy for tissue regeneration and the treatment of skeletal (bone and cartilage) tissue diseases.

 INNOVATIVE ASPECTS

 - The construct allows the stabilisation of viable cells in three-dimensional (3D) and biologically compatible structures.

- The construct allows the stabilisation of viable cells which comprise, animal cells including human cells osteoblast, fibroblasts, condroblast, mesenchymal stem cells, differentiate cells, progenitor cells, adult or embrionary stems cells.

- The construct is based on the cell-material specific interactions with spontaneously elicits cell adhesion and proliferation towards the formation viable three-dimensional structures.

- The construct is based on the use of nanostructured materials based on the SBA-15 type silica. 
  

-  The construct allows the stabilisation of viable cells for their implantation into the appropriate anatomic location.

- The construct allows the characterisation of the cells within a three-dimensional environment which minims the extracellular matrix before implantation.

- The construct can be used in a number of reconstructive and regenerative surgery interventions, orthopaedics, spinal surgery and oral and maxilofacial.

- The construct can be used as a biological fixation product within an artificial prosthesis and the host tissue in animals and humans.

-  The construct can be used in the reconstruction and regeneration of the skeletal tissues bone and cartilage, including dental applications.

- The construct can be used for tissue in situ applications in gene therapy in animals and humans.

- The construct can be used as an in vitro test system for trials in the pharmaceutical and environmental industry.

- The biomaterial can incorporate biomolecules, growth factors and therapeutic agents allowing and encouraging the molecules-cell interact¡ons, their delivery into the specific sites and kinetics release.

- The construct can be  used for the fabrication of bigger three-dimensional structures with the co-cultivation with endothelial cells and angiogenic factors.

- The construct can be used as cell-seeded modules for their implementation in bioreactors or cell culture devices.

 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Implementation in the clinic of cell therapy products and treatments for tissue regeneration of skeletal (bone and cartilage) tissue diseases. Clinical tissue engineering is still in its inicial phase.

Comercial bone tissue engineering is a  the beginning of clinical practice. Whereas many products claim to be tissue-engineered bone most of them are not cell/biomaterial combinations but only biomaterial/growth factor products.

KEYWORDS

Tissue Engineering Construct, Skeletal Tissue Engineering, Orthopaedics, Regenerative Medicine, Biomaterials, Clinical Research, Cell Culture, Dental Surgery, Gene therapy, Biomedical engineerig, Pharmaceutical Products, Cell Biology, Materials and Ceramic Composite Materials, Hybrid Composite Materials.

PATENT

P200702694 applied for 200710-015

 CONTACT

Iratxe Cano
email: iratxe.cano@eez.csic.es
phone:   +34 95 818 16 00

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