Fabrication and Application of Demineralized Bone Sheets

By Eugene Cheong
Biomedicine/Biosystems
iCons Year 4
2020
Eugene Cheong Senior Thesis
Executive Summary 

Bone tissue is one of the deepest tissue in the human body. Because of this, the cellular mechanisms occurring within the bone still remains a mystery. One way to better understand the inner workings of the bone is to perform studies in vitro through the use of bone tissue engineering. Although bone tissue engineering has aided in the uncovering of many mechanisms that are involved in bone remodeling, the current bone tissue scaffolds used still fails to encapsulate the complexity of the bone microenvironment. Since bone cells are known to be responsive to the surface morphology during the bone remodeling process, a scaffold that comprehensively captures the natural environment of the bone may give us a better insight as to how bone cells interact and react.

To achieve this, a bone tissue scaffold was fabricated that successfully captures the complexities of the bone. The scaffold was derived from demineralized bovine bone and sectioned into thin sheets. These sheets were then manipulated and weaved into a strip before osteoprogenitor cells were seeded. The strips were then rolled using an aluminum rod and cultured in osteogenic media. The resultant in vitro bone model is further tested to verify if the inner and outer space can be isolated. This will allow for a more comprehensive study that accounts for the diffusion of nutrients throughout the bone.

Read Senior Thesis for additional information.

Problem Keywords 
demineralized bone
osteoporosis
tissue engineering
bone
bone remodeling

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