Smart Bone Repair

In one strategy for repairing damaged bone, tissue engineers are developing implants made of a scaffold material and specific proteins (such as BMPs) that coax cells to form new bone. Researchers have tried using extracellular matrix isolated from animals as the scaffold material, but these substances carry a risk of disease transmission and may provoke an immune reaction. Alternatively, researchers have used artificial scaffold materials, but these perform less well because they are passive carriers that do not interact with cells.

Hubbell and colleagues attached two different short protein sequences to an artificial scaffold. One sequence helps cells in the body adhere to the scaffold. The other sequence, which can be snipped in two by cellular enzymes, allows incoming cells to degrade the scaffold and enter new regions of the implant. The degradation of the scaffold in turn releases BMP proteins, stimulating more bone formation. The new scaffold material represents an advance in tissue engineering because it combines several advantages of both natural and artificial scaffolds.

Author contact:
Jeffrey Hubbell
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 1 632 4575
E-mail: hubbell@biomed.mat.ethz.ch

Also available online.

(C) Nature Biotechnology press release.

Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza