Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

3d Printed Pla Scaffolds To Promote Healing Of Large Bone Defects, Jacob W. Cole, Tiera Martinelli, Mitchell T. Ryan, Sarah G. Seman, Daniel Sidle, Stephen R. Smith, Rocco J. Rotello, Timothy L. Norman

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

One challenge modern medicine faces is the ability to repair large bone defects and stimulate healing. Small defects typically heal naturally, but large bone defects do not and current solutions are to replace the missing tissue with biologically inert materials such as titanium. This limits the amount of bone healing as the defect is not repaired but rather replaced. The focus of our research is to develop a method of using 3D printing to create biodegradable scaffolds which promote bone in-growth and replacement. To accomplish this we used poly lactic acid (PLA) filament and a desktop 3D printer. To promote …

Osteon Mimetic Scaffolding, Janay Clytus

Senior Theses

The purpose of this research is to provide an alternative to naturally derived bone grafts. There is a gap in the supply of donors and the demand of bone tissue. Artificial scaffold creation can work as an implant and decrease the shortage of bone grafts and increase the range of injuries that can be repaired. Current research focuses on optimizing mechanical properties such as porosity, improving vascularization using cells, and generating osteoconductivity. For osteodifferentiation, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can differentiate into mesodermal lineages such as chondrocytes, osteoblasts, adipocytes, and tenocytes by supplementing cultures with lineage-specific soluble factors (Marchetti). Co-culturing ECFCs …

The Role Of Obesity And Dietary Fatty Acid Content In Regulating Humeral Bone And Cartilage Homeostasis, Lauren Votava

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary fatty acids in the context of diet-induced obesity on bone and cartilage in the humerus. It is known that obesity increases the severity of injury-induced osteoarthritis in the knee, however it is not fully understood what pathological changes have occurred due to diet alone¹. Additionally, while it is known that shoulder osteoarthritis has a link to obesity, the alterations in this joint are incompletely described.

Methods: In order to examine diet-induced changes in both bone and cartilage, this research utilized mice that had been …

Opioids Delay Healing Of Spinal Fusion: A Rabbit Posterolateral Lumbar Fusion Model, Nikhil Jain, Khaled Himed, Jeffrey M. Toth, Karen C. Briley, Frank M. Phillips, Safdar N. Khan

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background Context

Opioid use is prevalent in the management of pre- and postoperative pain in patients undergoing spinal fusion. There is evidence that opioids downregulate osteoblasts in vitro, and a previous study found that morphine delays the maturation and remodeling of callus in a rat femur fracture model. However, the effect of opioids on healing of spinal fusion has not been investigated before. Isolating the effect of opioid exposure in humans would be limited by the numerous confounding factors that affect fusion healing. Therefore, we have used a well-established rabbit model to study the process of spinal fusion healing that …