A new bioengineering technique could help repair bone defects

Our goal is to help these patients return to a normal life, and by taking advantage of the power of regenerative medicine, SATE brings us closer to this goal. "

Currently, bone defects are treated with synthetic substitutes or with bone grafts obtained from a bone bank or elsewhere in the body of a patient.

However, these treatments often trigger rejection by the immune system and do not form the necessary connective tissue or blood vessels.They may also be rapidly exceeded in pediatric patients.

Grafts created from the stem cells of a patient can overcome these problems, but are difficult to conceive in the precise size and shape required for large bone defects.The defect that needs to be replaced becomes larger, it becomes more difficult to reproducibly create a transplant that can to move from the laboratory to the clinic. "

Dr. Martina Sladkova, First Author

As reported in Scientific Reports ] the SATE technique combines smaller bone segments derived from stem cells to produce large individualized grafts that overcome these limitations in size and shape of grafts that can be grown in the laboratory.

In a rabbit model, the team scanned defect in the animal's femur to badess its size and shape and create a pattern of the graft. The model was then cut into smaller segments and individualized scaffolds were formed for each segment.

These scaffolds, which were equipped with mesodermal progenitor cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells, were then placed in a bioreactor designed to accommodate a range of bone graft sizes.

This bioreactor allowed the tissue to grow uniformly throughout the transplant. Once cells developed in the scaffold, bone adhesives or other orthopedic devices were used to combine the individual segments into a mechanically stable graft.

The team is confident that this versatile and easy to implement engineering technique will improve the treatment and quality of life of people with segmental bone malformations.