Biomaterials for Craniofacial Bone Engineering

Abstract

Conditions such as congenital anomalies, cancers, and trauma can all result in devastating deficits of bone in the craniofacial skeleton. This can lead to significant alteration in function and appearance that may have significant implications for patients. In addition, large bone defects in this area can pose serious clinical dilemmas, which prove difficult to remedy, even with current gold standard surgical treatments. The craniofacial skeleton is complex and serves important functional demands. The necessity to develop new approaches for craniofacial reconstruction arises from the fact that traditional therapeutic modalities, such as autologous bone grafting, present myriad limitations and carry with them the potential for significant complications. While the optimal bone construct for tissue regeneration remains to be elucidated, much progress has been made in the past decade. Advances in tissue engineering have led to innovative scaffold design, complemented by progress in the understanding of stem cell-based therapy and growth factor enhancement of the healing cascade. This review focuses on the role of biomaterials for craniofacial bone engineering, highlighting key advances in scaffold design and development.

Stem Cell Transplantation for Pulpal Regeneration: A Systematic Review

“…26 Even minute differences in the scaffold geometry, pore size, elasticity, mechanical properties, chemical composition, and degradation rate can greatly influence the cells regenerative behavior in vivo. 23,27 In the analyzed studies, the scaffold/carrier selection was closely related to the design of the experimental defect, with mineralized b-TCP used for capping of pulp defects, while those studies with partial to complete pulpal removal/amputation used cell pellets in the absence of a scaffold or applied cells on different collagen carriers to conform to the respective pulp chamber form. Again, these scaffolds have not been sufficiently and comparatively validated a priori while potentially affecting the transplanted cells' attributes, including cell proliferation rate and differentiation.…”

Molecular, Cellular and Pharmaceutical Aspects of Synthetic Hydroxyapatite Bone Substitutes for Oral and Maxillofacial Grafting

“…Bone graft substitutes have no cells in the graft and need more time for vascularization. For the development of an efficient neovascularization, pore sizes between 150 and 500μm, and a cross-talk between the pre-existing bone vasculature, osteoprogenitor and endothelial cells are required [76]. Angiogenesis and osteogenesis are closely coupled.…”

“…It was shown in another recent clinical and histological study, that nanocrystalline sHA proved to be useful augmentation material for a sinus lift in patients with previous oral cancer [88]. It is also critical to determine whether bone regenerative approaches with HA grafts are effective for healing craniofacial bone defects challenged by therapeutic radiation [76].…”

Bending and compression tests for PA 2200 parts obtained using Selective Laser Sintering method

“…The complex craniofacial skeleton is involved with various specific functions, such as protection of the brain and optic tracts, breathing, mastication, speech, and hearing [1,2].For this reason is very important to know the forces and which are the required mechanical properties for the future implant that will take over all the forces from the area.…”

“…Additive Manufacturing technology, with widespread availability of high-resolution medical imaging, has allowed for the generation of contoured 3D prostheses for craniofacial reconstruction [2].Computer technology has moved forward with the advent of Additive Manufacturing techniques which allow both the production of models of the hard tissues and custom-made prostheses from computerised scanning data [3].…”