Make Your Own Bones

Published on Friday, 09 December 2011 13:43

	By Andrew Roach Follow @_AsktheExperts_

Imagine being stuck in a hospital with a broken bone waiting for it to be treated wasting hours on end. This wait could now be at an end though thanks to a new treatment method and model.

Researchers from Washington State University have produced a new scaffold based from calcium phosphate that allows a bone replacement to be produced via a 3D printer.

A CT-scan is taken of the injured area and is then programmed into the 3D printer via Computer Aided Design (CAD) methods which then takes the substance sitting in the printer and moulds it into the correct shape and pattern to form the bone-like object.

It is hoped that the new mould can be used to help those with back problems and osteoporosis as well as being used in other surgical areas such as dentistry.

Susmita Bose, Professor of Mechanical and Material Science at WSU, co-wrote the research and explains how the scaffold and 3D printer were combined to produce these new results.

"If we can get a CT scan of a bone defect, we should be able to convert that to a computer aided design (CAD) file, and if the computer can draw it, we should be able to build it,” states Prof. Bose.

“It will work well for low load bearing places,” she added.

The researchers chose to use calcium phosphate as a base for the scaffold as it is naturally found within the body and it can be combined with natural compounds of natural elements such as zinc and silicon to help improve the scaffold’s strength.

“Human bone has calcium phosphate, besides silicon and zinc. They all improve density of these calcium phosphate based scaffolds and thus improve their strength,” explains Bose.

“The outstanding benefit of these bone-like scaffolds as a graft for repair or reconstruction of bone defects lies with the resorption characteristics, which will provide a controllable space for guided bone regeneration (GBR) during healing,” she commented.

Whilst the process has been made using a 3D printer, Bose believes that it might be easier to produce and produce the scaffold to aid healing, it is still a bit too early for the general public to be producing their own bones as and when they would need it.

“These 3D printed scaffolds made with bone like material can be made with controlled chemistry, shape, size and geometry, where adding growth factors can provide even faster healing,” says Bose.

“However, it is important to realize that bringing scientific and technological innovation to real life application, especially to solve health related problems, requires interdisciplinary approach in research and education, while understanding cross disciplinary languages,” she remarked.

So whilst we may still have to leave playing doctors and nurses to the playground for now, this new bone scaffold may not only help those with bone disorders but could help also revolutionize the way technology is used within medicine.