Printing better bones
鈥淔irst step toward a revolutionary change in bone-grafting technology鈥�
Using a modified ink-jet printer, a 黑料不打烊 University researcher is producing three-dimensional bioceramic 鈥渂ones鈥� that could one day change the way reconstructive surgery is performed.
黑料不打烊 professor Jake Barralet, Canada Research Chair in Osteoinductive Biomaterials, Charles Doillon of Universit茅 Laval and Uwe Gbureck of the Department for Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry at the University of W眉rzburg, Bavaria, have taken advantage of the ink-jet printer鈥檚 ability to print layer upon layer to produce three-dimensional porous materials using the same building blocks as real bone. Their results are published in the journal Advanced Materials.
鈥淩ather than printing on paper, we鈥檙e printing on a bed of cement powder using an acid instead of ink, which reacts with the cement to print whatever pattern we want,鈥� explained Dr. Barralet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to a CT scan, in that the image is created one layer at a time. The result is three-dimensional.鈥�
Printers are already used for modeling purposes, said Dr. Barralet, but this is the first time anyone has used a modified printer to produce artificial bone made of calcium phosphate at room temperature using the minerals brushite and hydroxyapatite. Because the process takes place at room temperature, the researchers are able to make custom-shaped grafts from materials that decompose at low temperatures.
鈥淏efore you can get bone, you need a blood supply and because this control over 3D geometry allows us to control blood vessel growth, we can more closely approximate real bone,鈥� Dr. Barralet added.
The process could eventually be used in reconstructive surgery or other types of bone repair and could be much more effective and less risky than harvesting sections of bone from elsewhere in the body to use in bone grafting, he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a long way from seeing this method used in a hospital setting, but it鈥檚 an important first step toward a revolutionary change in bone-grafting technology.鈥�
