Problems in load-bearing bone and hearing loss are social and economic burdens because they impair the quality of life of the patients. Up to now, the replacement of bone with artificial materials or with implants of bony tissue taken from other bones of the same patient is not completely effective due to problems with osteo-integration of allograft and amount of bone available from the body. Moreover, the implant should be shaped during surgery to accommodate the patient-specific geometry of the defect.
In light of this the project aims at covering such gaps using 3D printing and tissue engineering tools to create patient-specific (under both geometrical and biological viewpoints) biocompatible substitutes for diseased. To give an effective answer to the preceding clinical problems, we hypothesize a “recipe” with the following main ingredients:
- Stem cells of the patient, from which his/her bone cells can be obtained;
- Innovative biomaterials printed in 3D for a custom product dedicated to the patient’s pathology;
- Bioreactors able not only to heal the bone tissue but also to exploit the potential of the patient’s stem cells.
This multidisciplinary research activity is supported by a grant of Progetto di Ricerca Corrente 2018 (Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia) awarded to Prof. Francesco Benazzo. Such a challenging task requires a multidisciplinary approach integrating skills from different fields. The project foresees 2 research units of IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation, Orthopedics Unit lead by Prof. Francesco Benazzo and Otolaryngology Unit lead by Prof. Marco Benazzo and 2 research units of University of Pavia, 3D Printing Unit (3D@UniPV) coordinated by Dr. Michele Conti and lead by Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio and Centre for Health Technologies (CHT) coordinated by Prof. Giovanni Magenes.
The project foresees also in-vivo application testing the bone regeneration ability of the tissue-engineered scaffolds in a sheep model.
