DHAKA: In a major step towards improving surgeries after head or face injuries, scientists have developed a new type of 3D-printed polymeric bone implants that can survive in the body for long periods and be subsequently replaced with natural bone tissue in the body.

“The implant is coarctate and thus shielded from the mechanical impact of surgery, and it `unfolds' at a certain temperature during the surgery,” said Alevtina Chernikova from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) MISIS.

Chernikova said that the implant could be 3D printed at the selected dimensions, compressed twice in protective, biodegradable shelling, heated during the surgery and eventually fix into the renovated area of bone tissue without using blocking devices and fasteners used in transplantology.

“We have applied the shape memory effect in a polymeric composite material based on polylactide,” said Fedor Senatov, head of the project, reports the Times of India.

“We have developed a technology stacking multi-potent mesenchymal stromal cells, a bio engineering structure isolated from a patient's bone marrow, which stimulates the formation of blood vessels and tissue inside the implant, thus optimizing the process of survival and increasing the efficiency of transplantation,” Senatov said.

BDST: 1807 HRS, OCT 28, 2016
BD