Bioactive Film‐Guided Soft–Hard Interface Design Technology for Multi‐Tissue Integrative Regeneration

Abstract

Control over soft-to-hard tissue interfaces is attracting intensive worldwide research efforts. Herein, a bioactive film-guided soft-hard interface design (SHID) for multi-tissue integrative regeneration is shown. Briefly, a soft bioactive film with good elasticity matchable to native ligament tissue, is incorporated with bone-mimic components (calcium phosphate cement, CPC) to partially endow the soft-film with hard-tissue mimicking feature. The hybrid film is elegantly compounded with a clinical artificial ligament to act as a buffer zone to bridge the soft (ligament) and hard tissues (bone). Moreover, the bioactive film-decorated ligament can be rolled into a 3D bio-instructive implant with spatial-controllable distribution of CPC bioactive motifs. CPC then promotes the recruitment and differentiation of endogenous cells in to the implant inside part, which enables a vascularized bone growth into the implant, and forms a structure mimicking the biological ligament-bone interface, thereby significantly improving osteointegration and biomechanical property. Thus, this special design provides an effective SHID-guided implant-bioactivation strategy unreached by the traditional manufacturing methods, enlightening a promising technology to develop an ideal SHID for translational use in the future.

Phytic Acid-Gallium Network on a Polyimide Fiber Woven Fabric as an Artificial Ligament for Boosting Ligament–Bone Healing and Infection Treatment

“…The bioinert biomaterials cannot promote bone regeneration and osteointegration while produce a fibrous encapsule, which leads to the loosening/failure of medical implants . Histological assessment was conducted to further explore the bone regeneration for ligament–bone healing.…”

“…38 The bioinert biomaterials cannot promote bone regeneration and osteointegration while produce a fibrous encapsule, which leads to the loosening/failure of medical implants. 39 Histological assessment was conducted to further explore the bone regeneration for ligament−bone healing. H&E (Figure 10A) and Masson (Figure 10B) staining images reveal that at 4 weeks and 12 weeks after implantation, there are a few new bone tissues alongside significant ingrowth of fibrous tissues into the interface between PIF and the bone.…”

Injectable Biomimetic Hydrogel Guided Functional Bone Regeneration by Adapting Material Degradation to Tissue Healing

“…Further in vivo experiments were performed to validate the effects of LC hydrogel in structural and functional bone regeneration in vivo. Two animal models were used, namely, the subcutaneous ectopic osteogenesis mice model [ 46 ] and the tibial graft‐bone integration rabbit model, [ 11 ] to thoroughly verify the biological function of LC gels. The mice subcutaneous ectopic osteogenesis model was used to investigate the LC hydrogel‐guided structural bone regeneration, by injecting 2 mL of each gel subcutaneously into the back of mice using a 22G needle in a minimally invasive approach, and samples were investigated in 4 and 10 weeks after injection ( Figure a).…”

“…To investigate the effect of LC2 hydrogel on guiding functional bone regeneration in bone defects, a soft‐hard tissue healing rabbit model was developed. [ 11 ] Briefly, the artificial ligament graft was implanted into a 2 mm bone tunnel in the proximal tibia to simulate the ligament‐bone interface healing. The LC2 gel and control hydrogels (LP and CPC) were injected into the insertion site to investigate the effect of hydrogels on osseointegration of multi‐tissue reconstruction (soft‐hard tissues).…”

“…[7,8] Meanwhile, the biodegradable biomaterials can induce partial bone regeneration but fail in full segmental bone reconstruction due to various reasons such as low bioactivity (collagen), slow degradation and poor porosity (calcium phosphorus materials), rapid degradation (magnesium), or toxicity of degradation products (polylactic acid). [9,10] Although many attempts have been made to improve the integration of implants/scaffolds with bone tissue (bone growth-on and bone growth-in) or to use stem cells and growth factors to develop bioactive bone grafts, [11][12][13][14] till today, few materials can achieve a functional bone regeneration, that is, a complete transformation from biomaterial to new bone tissue in vivo; in addition, biomaterials with cells and growth factors are clinically limited due to ethics and biosafety issues (e.g., tumor genesis issue with BMP-2 [15] ). Chen et al reported a class of cell-free nano scaffolds with hierarchical structure and controlled alignment for effective endogenous bone regeneration.…”