Study of in vivo bone tissue engineering

Abstract

In vivo bone tissue engineering is an emerging field of regenerative medicine for bone defects, which differs from classical tissue engineering. In vivo bone tissue engineering uses the body as a “bioreactor” to construct bone graft with intrinsic osteoinductive biomaterials in the non-osseous or osseous sites. This technique relies on the body’s own capacity to regenerate itself, and it does not rely on the delivery of exogenous growth factors or cells. This study has focused on the exploration of osteoinductive biomaterials, the construction of tissue engineering bone with osteoinductive biomaterials, and investigating possible applications in repairing mandibular bone defects in animals in order to develop a feasible technique for bone restoring. The results demonstrated that biomaterials without any exogenous growth factors or cells can induce bone formation in non-osseous sites, and in vivo tissue engineering bone formed with osteoinductive calcium phosphate (Ca-P) ceramics has similar histological characteristics with natural bone. It is possible to construct large bone graft with good blood supply and certain mechanical strength in vivo by using osteoinductive biomaterials. In vivo tissue engineering bone has been provided with a hope of being used to repair segmental bone defects of mandible and support dental implant.