This is extraordinary work. We looking at effective protocols for
dentine replacement to start with. This is the low hanging fruit for
this method. Then getting enamel production is another problem but
this is a fantastic start. Growing enamel could also be blended with
carbon nano tubes to make a hugely wear resistant surface.
The next trick though is to provide a ready framework for the
outright healing of spinal cords and other nerves. The fact it is
mentioned at all suggests that a clear pathway is seen. Thus we
could be well on the way to eliminate the worse sources of general
disability in out society.
I suspect that this is all moving ahead rapidly.
Smart scaffolding
aims to rebuild tissue from the inside
NIH funds tissue
engineering project at Rice University to test peptide hydrogels,
starting with teeth
HOUSTON – (Nov. 12,
2012) – Smart scaffolding that can guide cells, proteins and
small-molecule drugs to make new tissue and repair damage inside the
body is in the works at Rice University.
Scientists at Rice and
the Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry
received a $1.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) to develop a hydrogel that can be injected into a
patient to form an active biological scaffold.
Rice bioengineer
Jeffrey Hartgerink and co-investigator Rena D’Souza of Baylor won
the grant to continue their groundbreaking work on self-assembling,
multidomain peptide hydrogels that not only physically support
but also encourage the growth of specific kinds of tissues.
Bioengineers use
scaffolds to mimic the body’s extracellular matrix, which supports
the growth and maintenance of living cells. Synthetic scaffolds are
used as frameworks to form replacement tissues and, perhaps someday,
regenerate entire organs from a patient’s own cells. Once their
work is done, the scaffolds are designed to degrade and leave only
natural, healthy tissue behind.
While much of the work
to date has focused on creating tissue in the laboratory for
implantation, Hartgerink’s aim is to inject scaffolds infused
with living cells that will allow the repairs to happen inside the
tissue’s natural environment.
The peptides designed
and prepared at Rice self-assemble into nanofibers that can be
triggered to form a hydrogel. “We can then deliver cells,
small-molecule drugs and proteins to bring everything together
properly in one place,” said Hartgerink, an associate professor of
chemistry and of bioengineering at Rice. Hydrogels could be designed
to interact with stem cells and “get them to do what we want them
to do,” he said.
Hartgerink and
D’Souza, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at
Baylor currently on a working sabbatical at Rice’s BioScience
Research Collaborative, have been pursuing the project for five
years. The NIH grant will allow them to focus on the regeneration
of the dentin-pulp complex found inside every tooth. The pulp,
D’Souza said, is the soft tissue in the roots and crown that keeps
the tooth vital and responsive to injury. “If you have a toothache,
it’s the tissue that’s inflamed and has no place to expand.
That’s why it hurts so much,” she said.
Currently, dentists
remove inflamed pulp and replace it with an inert rubber-based
filler, she said. But injecting stem cell-seeded hydrogels would
allow natural pulp to regenerate into the chamber while stimulating
new dentin formation. “Hydrogels have key advantages,”
D’Souza said. “We can deliver them in a syringe to small spaces
that are difficult to access, and the material does not get damaged.
Developing this material as a restorative therapy is advantageous to
patients as, unlike all other dental materials, this one is
biologically active.”
The
researchers reached a milestone in 2010 when they found
a way to have the fibers degrade rather than stay in the body. With
the new grant, they hope to start trials of their dental hydrogel
within two years, D’Souza said. “I can see potential
applications for hydrogel, for example, for spinal cord regeneration
or for various eye conditions, where we can restore the vitreous
humour,” she said.
Hartgerink is glad to
have the NIH on board, but noted the grant would not have been
possible without initial support from the Welch Foundation.
“I’ve had Welch funding since the day I got here, and it has
allowed me to do the preliminary work for all the grants we ended up
getting,” he said. “It’s good to have them in Texas.”
D’Souza said the
seed grant money provided by the International Association for Dental
Research in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline enabled her laboratory
to perform proof-of-concept stem cell experiments. “This is a great
example of the huge benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration
where, by combining expertise, we can push the frontiers of
translational and clinical research forward.”
The NIH grant is
administered by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research.
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