H2020Индивидуална стипендия2021–2023

MADE-TEC · Advanced Modelling Aided Design of Tissue Engineered Construct for Optimal Soft Tissue Repair

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2021-03-01 → 2023-02-28
Финансиране от ЕС: 190 681 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Компютърни модели анализират как разпределението на клетките и твърдостта на материалите помагат за по-доброто срастване на изкуствено създаден хрущял с естествените тъкани. Това е важно, за да се подобри лечението на остеоартрита и мобилността на милиони хора в Европа.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Advanced Modelling Aided Design of Tissue Engineered Construct for Optimal Soft Tissue Repair

Tissue engineering of articular cartilage in the lab is a promising approach for tissue repair of diarthrodial joints that are affected by osteoarthritis. However, the integrative properties of the engineered tissues are not well-understood, leading to a poor integration of these engineered constructs with the host natives tissues following implantation. Osteoarthritis is a joint disease that affects more than 40 million people in Europe. The overall mobility of the patients with osteoarthritis is severely limited due to pain and swelling of the affected joints, thereby predisposing the patients, especially of the elderly, to high risk of other morbidities such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Determination of an effective treatment strategy for osteoarthritis is crucial to meet the medical need of this patient group. In addition, the economic burden due to the medical treatments, down time and reduced working life of the affected patients can be reduced if a breakthrough is made in the area of tissue engineering. The over-arching goal of the current project was aimed at identifying the optimal distribution of material stiffness and cell density within the engineered constructs for enhanced functional integration of the engineered tissue constructs with host tissues post-implantation. Laboratory identification of the optimal material properties and cell distribution is extremely labour-, cost-, and time-consuming. Therefore, the current project proposed an in silico approach through the development of an advanced computational model capable of predicting the mechanical growth stimuli for cells residing in the biomaterials and the host tissue to which the engineered construct is implanted. The computational material model is able to provide insight into the mechanism of cell mechano-biology that is crucial for the understanding of cell responses to various forms of mechanical stimuli. Conclusion of the actions The progress of this fellowship was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the year of 2021. Nevertheless, most goals initially set out for the proposal are achieved. In total, this fellowship leads to 9 peer-reviewed publications, 7 conference abstracts, and 4 manuscripts that are under preparation. The research output generated through this fellowship improves the current understanding of cartilage growth and degeneration, as well as the design of biomaterials used for tissue engineering.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Articular cartilage (AC) is a connective tissue that is essential for smooth movement of our joints. Damage to AC leads to a debilitating joint disease called osteoarthritis (OA), which can cause severe restriction of joint movement and overall mobility. Currently, there are more than 40 million Europeans who are affected by OA. Tissue engineering approaches present promising treatment strategy through the replacement of the damaged tissues with tissue-engineered (TE) constructs. Although the current paradigm is to produce a cell-seeded biomaterial that matches the properties of the native tissue, such biomaterial may hinder growth and discourage replacement of the supportive biomaterials by newly synthesized proteins. Current TE constructs integrate poorly with the host tissue, with problems of interfacial gaps and compositional discontinuity, thus impeding their translation to the clinic. As cartilage cells are mechano-sensitive, we hypothesize that the mechanical signals conducive to cell biosynthesis can improve functional integration of TE constructs into host cartilage, and such mechanical signals can be tuned through carefully-designed TE constructs with optimal distribution of material stiffness and cell density. The aim of this research is to develop an advanced computational model that can simulate the biomechanical and growth behaviours of TE constructs and the host cartilage, and to use this model to determine optimal TE construct design that allows for functional integration into the host cartilage. The numerically-determined optimal design will be validated by state-of-the-art bioprinting technology and bioreactor testing. This computational biomechanical growth model will be the first-of-its kind as it can accelerate the design process and improve the performance of the TE constructs. This novel model can make a long-term impact on personalized design of TE constructs and have a high potential to advance the TE technique towards clinical translation.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO · KUOPIOКоординаторФинландия