Skeletal tissue engineering
Cell sources
Cells specialise to form different tissues in the body. It is therefore important to get the right cell types for the tissue you wish to engineer, or use 'stem cells'- that is cells that have not yet differentiated.
Cell expansion
Laboratory cultures of healthy, non-cancerous mammalian cells will only divide a fixed number of times, up to the Hayflick limit (approximately 50 divisions). To make a large volume of replacement tissue we must therefore either work round this problem, or have a large volume of cells to work with in the first instance.
Scaffolds
Scaffolds encourage the growth and development of replacement healthy tissue, and the integration of the new tissue with the body. In the early stages after surgery scaffolds may also provide a useful mechanical replacement for the missing tissue, until the engineered tissue has been fully integrated with the patient's body.
Tissue engineering and characterisation
We specialise in the engineering of skeletal tissues - bone, cartilage and tendon. A variety of combinations of cells and scaffolds are being assayed by histology, biochemical analysis and microtomography (microCT).
Functional properties
The engineered tissue must be able to perform the required function within the body -different skeletal tissues perform a range of mechanical functions from support loads, to acting as lubricating surfaces.