Biodegradable聚合物移植,手术的时候placed in damaged vertebrae, likely to grow to be just the right size and shape to fix the spinal column have been developed by Rochester, Minn. based Mayo Clinic researchers scientists. These grafts fill the void to strengthen the spine, take on a spongy material that grows to the proper size and shape of damaged vertebrae to fix spinal columns.
“这项研究的总体目标是要找到方法to treat people with metastatic spinal tumors," says Lichun Lu, Ph.D. "The spine is the most common site of skeletal metastases in cancer patients, but unlike current treatments, our approach is less invasive and is inexpensive." Often, removing extensive spinal tumors requires taking out the entire bone segment and adjacent intervertebral discs from the affected area. In this case, something must fill the large void to maintain the integrity of the spine and protect the spinal cord. There are typically two surgical choices in cases of extensive spinal metastases. In the more aggressive and invasive option, the surgeon opens the chest cavity from the front of the patient, which provides enough room to insert metal cages or bone grafts to replace the missing fragment. The other approach is less invasive, requiring just a small cut in the back or posterior, but only offers enough space for the surgeon to insert short expandable titanium rods, which are costly. To develop a less expensive graft compatible with the posterior spinal surgery option, Lu, who is at the Mayo Clinic, and her postdoctoral fellow, Xifeng Liu, Ph.D., sought a material that could be dehydrated down to a size compatible with posterior spinal surgery, and then, once implanted, absorb fluids from the body, expanding to replace the missing vertebrae.
研究人员是从交联的寡核[乙二醇（乙二醇）]创建了一个空心的亲水笼子 - 移植物的支架 - 然后可以用稳定材料和治疗剂填充。卢说：“当我们设计了可扩展的管子时，我们希望能够控制移植物的大小，以便在去除肿瘤后剩下的精确空间。”研究人员还需要控制扩展的动力学，因为如果笼子膨胀得太快，外科医生可能没有足够的时间正确地定位它，而缓慢的扩张可能意味着要进行更长的手术。刘说，修改聚合物移植物扩展的程度和时间是化学问题。他说：“通过调节聚合物的分子量和电荷，我们可以调整材料的特性。”研究人员通过观察模仿实验室中脊柱环境的条件下观察聚合物移植物的膨胀速率来研究这些化学变化的影响。该信息是确定用于修复手术的脊柱植入物的最佳尺寸。小组确定了各种在动物中生物相容性的材料的组合，他们认为将在人类中起作用。卢说，她的实验室的下一步是研究尸体中的移植物并模拟住院程序。他们的目标是在未来几年内开始临床试验。

一个青春期的女孩现在加入了一群三个男婴和一个女婴，他们接受了3D打印的气管夹板，以治疗先天性呼吸状况，称为Tracheobronchomalasia（TBM）。密歇根大学与3D定价专家EOS之间的合作伙伴关系开发了挽救生命的植入物。由于手术程序有助于他们正常崩溃的功能，这五名患者的进展进展顺利。救生程序是在美国食品和药物管理局紧急清除下进行的。增材制造专家公司EOS提供了技术解决方案和专家。
格林博士和斯科特·霍利斯特（Scott Hollister）博士使用Mitalize的模仿创新套件，使用患者解剖结构的CT扫描来建模和构建这些夹板。该套件用于设计由密歇根大学（University of Michigan）于2007年许可的生物吸收技术平台（TRS）构建的夹板。经过几年的精制制造方法，TRS从FDA中获得了首个商业产品批准。2013年。物料合作伙伴关系是目前在TRS中正在进行的几个共同开发项目之一。得益于FDA批准扩大了对研究性医疗设备的访问，现在定期使用夹板来治疗TBM。大约有2,200名婴儿出生时有TBM，这会导致气管定期崩溃。The tracheal splint, developed to save the lives of these children, is made with a biopolymer called polycaprolactone, a biodegradable material that is gradually absorbed into the infant’s body tissue over time.The U-M team now hopes to next year open a clinical trial for 30 patients with similar conditions at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.“We have continued to evolve and automate the design process for the splints, allowing us to achieve in two days what used to take us up to five days to accomplish,”adds Scott Hollister, Ph.D., professor of biomedical Engineering and mechanical engineering.“I feel incredibly privileged to be building products that surgeons can use to save lives.”We also feel privileged to report on how 3D printing can truly and practically save and change lives.

American scientists are hoping to mechanically reinforce worn-out cartilage by incorporating a biomimetic gel. As they report in the journalAngewandte Chemie, their technique results in extensive interpenetration of the cartilage's natural biopolymer network with the synthetic polymer network. Osteoarthritis does not only occur in older individuals. Young people are also affected, often as a result of a misalignment; an accident; or stress from competitive sport, excessive weight, or asymmetrical physical labor. Healthy cartilage acts as cushioning in the joint. If it wears out, the bones begin to rub against each other, causing pain and deformation of the joint. The cause of this wear is a depletion of glycosaminoglycans in the cartilage tissue. These polysaccharides carry a negative charge that allows them to bind to water molecules, which maintains the hydration of the tissue. In the early stages of osteoarthritis, the cartilage dries out and the "cushion" becomes thinner and less able to withstand load bearing. No treatments to regenerate cartilage are currently available.
波士顿大学，贝丝以色列女执事医疗中心和波士顿儿童医院（美国波士顿）的研究人员旨在改变这一点。通过合并一个包含必要充电基团的第二个聚合物网络，他们建议重新建立软骨垫并恢复其机械稳定性。这不仅应该修补单个受损区域，而且旨在加强整个组织网络。在这种方法中，组织被单体浸润，这些单体通过暴露于光聚合到位。
The team, led by Mark. W. Grinstaff, chose to use zwitterions (ions with both positively and negatively charged groups) based on phosphorylcholine as their monomers. Phosphorylcholine is known for its biocompatibility. These monomers are able to penetrate into the biopolymer tissue of the cartilage. Further reagents are used to crosslink the synthetic polymer and to start the polymerization as soon as the area is irradiated with green laser light. This results in a gel in which the synthetic polymerchains are extensively entangled with the polymer chains of the cartilage. The gel binds water well, allowing the hydration of treated cartilage to be maintained longer under strain.
Compression tests with enzymatically degraded bovine cartilage showed that the gel can restore the original mechanical stability of the cartilage. The gel preferentially aggregates in areas that are particularly affected. A simulation of accelerated wear showed that healthy cartilage can also be effectively protected against degeneration by using this method. This new process thus seems to be highly promising for the treatment of osteoarthritis in its early stages.