Autologous Bone Implantation

Regeneration of bone to repair fractures and other osteogenic defects is a serious problem for orthopaedic, oral and maxillo-facial surgeons. Traditional approaches like autograft and allograft procedures are not always satisfactory in terms of recovery; moreover, possible pathogen transfer and immune rejection leads these techniques not really adequate. To overcome these problems new techniques are being setting up to produce engineered bone grafts using artificial extracellular matrices (scaffolds) made of synthetic materials that can be used alone or with the addition of cells.

 
Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) offer a great deal of interest due to their potential use in regenerative medicine because of their osteogenic differentiation ability, extensive in vitro proliferation capacity and non-immunogenic properties. MSCs are traditionally isolated from bone marrow, but they have been also found in other tissue such as adipose tissue and umbilical cord bloods.

The use of autologous MSCs together with and three-dimensional synthetic scaffolds is one of the most promising strategy to replace bone fragments. Common cell culture techniques, however, include many steps not fully controlled without appropriate quality assurance and quality control.

VivaBioCell is developing 3-D biocompatible, highly porous, osteoconductive and resorbable scaffolds. These products are small, customizable and suitable for oral and maxillo-facial surgery. VivaBioCell scaffolds can be used alone or with autologous MSCs.

To generate a product in compliance with current Good Manufactoring Practices (GMP), VivaBioCell is furthermore developing a close and fully automatic system (bioreactor) able to select and amplify autologous MSCs directly on scaffolds without extensive human manipulations.