Three-dimensional imaging on the left shows how bone, in green, replaced the bioactive ceramic scaffold, in purple, over a six-month period. Microscope images on the right show progressively increasing degrees of bone, stained pink, and lower amount of scaffold, in black, as time goes by in the body. Photo credit: Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
Three-Dimensional–Printed Implants Shown to Help Grow ‘Real Bone’ (OrthoFeed)
Chemically coated, ceramic implants successfully guided the regrowth of missing bone in lab animals while “steadily dissolving,” researchers report.
Surgeons and scientists at NYU School of Medicine and NYU College of Dentistry say their implanted scaffolds were naturally absorbed by the test animals’ bodies as new bone gradually replaced the devices. The research team describes its progress in a series of reports, the latest of which appears online July 25 in the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
Modeled after the bone pieces they are meant to help replace, the implants were assembled onsite using three-dimensional robotic printing, a technology that uses a fine-point print head to push out a gel-like ink material....
