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Dr. John A. Szivek, Biomedical Engineer and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Receives a US $ 5 Million Five-Year Grant from the US Department of Defense to Launch a Study of How to Address Bone Fractures in Canada combining 3D printing and the adult. stem cells. Image credit: University of Arizona
All broken bones do not heal. But a scientist from the University of Arizona hopes to address this problem by combining 3D printing and adult stem cells.
"Imagine an impact that breaks half of a long bone and prevents it from being put back in place.No current surgical treatment can guarantee the healing of this type of injury," said John A. Szivek , PhD, researcher at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. "This is a very big problem for the military, where explosions or injuries in combat can cause large bone defects."
Dr. Szivek, a biomedical engineer and professor of orthopedic surgery, received a $ 5 million grant from the US Department of Defense to launch a study to determine how to treat bone fractures. a combination of 3D printing and adult stem cells.
With the help of clinical partners from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the AU, Dr. Szivek's laboratory plans to 3D print scaffolds – shaped plastic bone frames – that can replace large, missing or broken bone segments. These scaffolds will be filled with calcium particles and adult stem cells, two key elements that accelerate bone healing and growth.
Once implanted, scaffolding will serve as a model for bone growth.
Pilot studies in Dr. Szivek's laboratory showed that this technique worked well. "We have achieved complete bone formation by covering an important bone defect for about three months, and now we want to accelerate the healing process even further," he said.
The team will check if early exercise in the healing process can help speed healing and recovery.
"Studies have shown that exercise makes your bones grow, so maybe we can make sure that the bones of our scaffolds grow even faster with exercise," Dr. Szivek said.
To test this theory, 3D implants will have tiny sensors that can wirelessly transmit physical activity.
These sensors will badyze the load, or the weight applied on the scaffold, and for how long.
Changes in bone size in an active group doing regular exercises will be compared to an inactive group. Dr. Szivek's team expects the active group, which regularly weighs on its healing limbs, to show much faster bone growth. His team hopes to develop guidelines for postoperative physical therapy by demonstrating that exercise leads to better bone formation.
If the study succeeds, Dr. Szivek expects that clinical trials will take place on military personnel.
The current treatment of these traumatic lesions usually fails and requires repeated surgical procedures.
"Patients often break damaged bone after surgeons have tried to repair it and the limb will eventually be amputated," said Dr. Szivek. "There is no good way to regenerate or repel long bone segments yet."
The human body will try to push back the missing or damaged bone for a few months after an injury, but it will eventually give up the process. At this point, the scar tissue fills the defect instead of the bone.
"That's why we need to develop a way to grow the bone as quickly as possible – to help the body while it is still able to grow and replace bone," he says. said Dr. Szivek.
AU Chair Robert C. Robbins praised Dr. Szivek's lab: "This is an incredible example of the kind of innovative research made possible by the technological advances achieved through the convergence of the biological, physical and digital worlds. and a kind of project that shows how the badessment officer is a leader in cutting-edge solutions to difficult challenges, "said Dr. Robbins.
"The work that Dr. Szivek and his team are doing to help these people is a great example of how new technologies are being used to significantly improve the quality of life for patients, and I am confident that their unique research will lead to the implementation of these new technologies. to the point of more effective treatments for repairing critical bone injuries ".
Dr. Szivek hopes that the potential treatment will also help bone cancer patients who are surgically removed.
This article has been republished from documents provided by the University of Arizona. Note: Content may have changed for length and content. For more information, please contact the cited source.
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