Smart scaffolds for osteoporosis treatment

Osteoporosis is a well known, worldwide spread disease with a rapidly growing incidence as the population ages; it results in bone loss and deterioration and in a decreased bone strength involving an increase in the risk of fractures. This disease has a very high frequency in people over 50 and it has been calculated that 1 in 5 men and 1 in 3 women over 50 will experience an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. The main clinical consequences of this disease are bone fractures, which are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Antiresorptive agents such as bisphosphonates are mainstays of the therapy for osteoporosis and currently four of these agents have received FDA approval for clinical treatment. The perfect solution to treat osteoporosis is still not within grasp and recently attention was drawn to the negative outcome of some drugs clinically used to treat osteoporosis. In the frame of the ERC-consolidator grant BOOST, a scaffold purposely developed for osteoporosis treatment will be developed. In the present work, healthy and early osteoporotic bone geometries will be obtained from tomographic scans of human bone tissues discarded from surgery on healthy and early-stage osteoporotic patients. Smart scaffolds will be biofabricated by means of a purposely developed multimaterial platform which will combine different rapid prototyping techniques. To manufacture the scaffolds collagen will be used as a matrix and mesoporous bioactive glass as reinforcing and bioactive phase. The fabricated scaffolds will then be tested in suitable bioreactors by means of a co-culture of osteoblasts and osteoclasts in order to codify the influence of both chemical and topographical stimuli on the osteoblast-osteoclast coupling.