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Building Artificial Bone
Late-Eight writes "Researchers from the National University of Singapore, have recently developed a new way to make artificial bone from mineralised collagen. For some time scientists have tried to make nanosized artificial bone materials using various methods, And have recently turned their attention to mineralised collagen, a nanoapatite/collagen composite. This material is highly biocompatible and has the nanostructure of artificial bone. It could be used in bone grafts and bone-tissue engineering, among other applications."
Pfizer already has an edge in the artificial bone industry.
Biomimetic Man just doesn't have the same ring to it..
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. - Oscar Wilde
It's a little unclear from the article. Todays bone grafts (if donated) are performed with bone fragments, heads, grindings, etc from deceased donors. The donor bone is attached and actually broken down and replaced by the patients own osteocytes effectively replacing lost bone and ridding itself of the donor bone. I would assume this would be used for larger scale bone replacements.
For those interested in the topic, linear high-density polyethylene like Medpor can be cut to size and allows tissue growth into the material once implanted. It is mostly for craniofacial reconstruction and generally not used in weight-bearing areas, though. There's also hydroxyapatite (nicknamed HA), derived from coral. Pretty cool stuff.
Evil sig is livE.
"my girlfriend has 3 artificial bones. she keeps them in the sock drawer"
Pity they only fit when she's inflated.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I'm looking at having a mid-foot fusion sometime in the next year. Nasty operation. 3 months off my feet (and off work), only to be repeated a second time if it fails. Any weight on the joint in the first 6 weeks ruins the operation completely. Non-union's a 10-15% risk anyway, and there's also the risk of instability in the joint. I don't want to do it, but I'm told if I leave it too long I won't be able to walk and that in the medium term I have no other options. Once fused the bones can't be un-fused with current medical techniques. One of the bones I'm having fused looks like swiss cheese in the MRI and CAT scans. I'm worried that even if the fusion is a success it'll crumble in the long term. From a technical point of view the whole op seems like a really bad idea - it's just all they have to offer. Ever since I found out I've thought the best way would be to replace bad/worn out bone. I wonder if I've just been born a little early for proper bone replacement to be an option.
Unlike hip and knee replacements ankle surgery (especially replacements - thankfully not what I'm dealing with) don't have a high success rate. I wonder if this'll do anything to improve that.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Osteoporosis is a medical problem - generally low amounts of estrogen prevent inhibition of osteoclasts, which therefore resorb the bone faster than the osteoblasts produce new bone.
This article is about surgical substitutes. Bone grafts today are for large visable defects that are either filled in, or are entire segments that are replaced. Generally the donated bone is only changed at the end - about 7mm worth. The rest of the dead, donated bone does not change over, and is generally weaker, and subject to infection at a higher rate.
Bone is complicated - it is a mineral scaffold which houses living bone cells. Most bone substitute just provides the scaffolding (conductive), and some actually induce new bone to form (Inductive), which relies on chemical signals to help cells differentiate into bone forming cells (osteoblasts).
This sounds like they have made a very natural appearing scaffolding, which makes it easy for the new bone cells to move in, and produce normal appearing bone. This is a nice tweak on the existing technology, but not a major breakthru which will help to form new large segmens of bone.
..........FULL STOP.