Personalized medicine for reconstruction of critical-size bone defects – a translational approach with customizable vascularized bone tissue
Annika Kengelbach‐Weigand, Carolina Thielen, Tobias Bäuerle, Rebekka Götzl, Thomas Gerber, Carolin Körner, Justus P. Beier, Raymund E. Horch, Anja M. Boos
Abstract
Tissue engineering principles allow the generation of functional tissues for biomedical applications. Reconstruction of large-scale bone defects with tissue-engineered bone has still not entered the clinical routine. In the present study, a bone substitute in combination with mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) with or without growth factors BMP-2 and VEGF-A was prevascularized by an arteriovenous (AV) loop and transplanted into a critical-size tibia defect in the sheep model. With 3D imaging and immunohistochemistry, we could show that this approach is a feasible and simple alternative to the current clinical therapeutic option. This study serves as proof of concept for using large-scale transplantable, vascularized, and customizable bone, generated in a living organism for the reconstruction of load-bearing bone defects, individually tailored to the patient's needs. With this approach in personalized medicine for the reconstruction of critical-size bone defects, regeneration of parts of the human body will become possible in the near future.