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z Top Stories Nanoparticles aid bone growth
z National
z International
z Regional Nanotube-reinforced material produces denser bone tissue
5x5 Set
z Business
as $89.9
z Sport In the first study of its kind, bioengineers and bioscientists at Rice University and
z Sci. & Tech.
Lightnin
Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, have shown they can grow denser
z Entertainment
Shipping
bone tissue by sprinkling stick-like nanoparticles throughout the porous material Same D
z Agri. & Commodities used to pattern the bone. Shipping
z Index $600
According to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the www.Scaff

z Photo Gallery Advancement of Science, the research is available online and slated to appear in
the journal Bone. It's the latest breakthrough from the burgeoning field of tissue
engineering. The new discipline combines the latest research in materials science
The Hindu Cosmet
and biomedical engineering to produce tissues that can be transplanted without
Print Edition Dentistr
risk of rejection. See Loc
z Front Page
Dentists
z National To grow new bone, tissue engineers typically place bone cells on porous, Service
z Tamil Nadu biodegradable materials called scaffolds, which act as patterns. With the right Area!
chemical and physical cues, the cells can be coaxed into producing new bone. As www.foste
z Andhra Pradesh
z Karnataka the scaffold degrades, it is replaced by new bone.
z Kerala
z Delhi "Ideally, a scaffold should be highly porous, nontoxic and biodegradable, yet
z Other States
strong enough to bear the structural load of the bone that will eventually replace Dental I
z International
it," said lead researcher Antonios Mikos, Rice's J.W. Cox Professor in Special
z Opinion
Bioengineering, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the New tee
z Business
director of Rice's Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering. "Previous research your ow
z Sport
has shown that carbon nanotubes give added strength to polymer scaffolds, but SF & Su
z Miscellaneous
www.denta
z Index this is the first study to examine the performance of these materials in an animal
model."
z Magazine
z Literary Review In the experiments, the researchers implanted two kinds of scaffolds into rabbits.
z Metro Plus One type was made of a biodegradable plastic called poly(propylene fumarate), or SCF for
z Business Nanotec
PPF, which has performed well in previous experiments. The second was made of
z Education Plus Create P
99.5 percent PPF and 0.5 percent single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes are
z Open Page with NO
about 80,000th the width of a hair. While they are normally about a thousand
z Book Review
times longer than they are wide, the researchers used shorter segments that have Control
z SciTech
fared well in prior cytocompatibility studies. Distribru
z NXg www.appli
z Entertainment
z Cinema Plus Half the samples were examined four weeks after implantation and half after 12
z Young World weeks. While there was no notable difference in performance at four weeks, the
z Property Plus nanotube composites exhibited up to threefold greater bone ingrowth after 12
z Quest weeks than the PPF. Furthermore, the researchers found the 12-week composite
scaffolds contained about two-thirds as much bone tissue as the nearby native
bone tissue, while the PPF contained only about one-fifth as much.

Mikos said the nanocomposites performed better than anticipated. In fact, the
results indicate that they may go beyond passive guides and take an active role in
promoting bone growth.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/008200806151022.htm 8/13/2010
The Hindu News Update Service Page 2 of 2

"We don't yet know the exact mechanism of this enhanced bone formation, but
we have intensive studies under way to find out," Mikos said. "It could be related
to changes in surface chemistry, strength or other factors."

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