Description du projet
Des échafaudages piézoélectriques stimulent la croissance des tissus
L’ingénierie tissulaire est un domaine biomédical qui se développe rapidement centré sur la réparation, l’entretien ou le remplacement de cellules endommagées. La technique s’appuie généralement sur un «échafaudage» sur lequel les cellules sont encouragées à se différencier et se développer par l’addition de facteurs de croissance et d’autres substances. Cependant, un tissu ou un organe individuel est constitué d’une multitude de différents types de cellules, et faire en sorte qu’elles coexistent et s’organisent en unités fonctionnelles comme elles le feraient dans le corps n’est pas chose aisée. PRIUS-TE envisage d’améliorer considérablement les résultats pour l’ingénierie tissulaire en exploitant des matériaux intelligents dans des échafaudages hiérarchiques. Bien que l’attention soit tournée vers l’os et le cartilage, l’innovation trouvera sans aucun doute une application dans de nombreux autres tissus et organes.
Objectif
On an aging society, our quality of life depends significantly in our capability to regenerate or engineer replacements for diseased and damaged tissues. One of these is the osteochondral interface. Over 30% of the population above the age of 65 is affected by osteochondral defects, being the most common cause of disability in older adults. PRIUS-TE (Printing Ultrasound Stimulated piezoelectric materials for Tissue Engineering) aims to regenerate the osteochondral interface with the use of hierarchical piezoelectric materials capable of stimulating mechanically, electrically and chemically the cells. Cartilage is unable to adequately self-regenerate due to its avascular character, the high content of extra cellular matrix (ECM) and the quiescent character of cells within (chondrocytes). Damage or diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) lead to degeneration, reaching subchondral bone and generating an osteochondral defect. Clinical treatments rely on microfracture techniques that recruit tissue-specific progenitor (or stem) cells from the bone marrow, and form a de-novo cartilaginous tissue. However, the recruited cells are not able to self-organize and differentiate into phenotypically coherent cells. This results in the formation of unstructured and isotropic tissues with impaired mechanical properties that fail at long term. Current TE strategies are mainly based on isotropic materials that disregard the intrinsic multi-zonal character of the native tissue. PRIUS-TE takes inspiration from the structure and intrinsic properties of the osteochondral interface. It is based on hierarchical scaffolds that mimic the structure, cell microenvironment and fixed ionic charge responsible of the mechanical properties of the native tissue. These gradient, hierarchical and piezoelectric scaffolds will stimulate the recruited cells electrically, mechanically and chemically promoting the layer-specific cell growth, differentiation and the formation of a coherent tissue.
Champ scientifique
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Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
48940 Leioa
Espagne