3-D Bone Tissue Engineering Utilizing Pepsin-Digested Demineralized Bone Matrix

Presenter

Ariana Eve Swoyer

Group Members

Danae Angeliki Dimitrakopoulos

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Jungwoo Lee, Department of Chemical Engineering, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C32, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 4 (C31-C40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Annually, over two million bone grafts are performed globally to replace bone loss from fractures, bone cancers, or surgeries. Autologous bone grafts are the gold standard but are impractical for many patients. Alternatively, demineralized bone matrix (DBM) is used. To fit the unique size and space of each bone, DBM is morselized and introduced to the defective area, but its resolution remains suboptimal to meet the clinical need. Recent advances in 3D bioprinting offer the potential for creating intricate bone graft shapes, but development of 3D printable DBM while preserving bone collagen’s osteoinductive function remains an active research area.

We report processing of DBM by mechanical breakdown and subsequent chemical dissociation which can be used for 3D bioprinting while retaining intrinsic collagen structure of bone. First, we demineralized bovine bone using hydrochloric acid under cyclic hydrostatic pressure. The prepared DBM was mechanically chopped into granules (~1mm). Next, we treated the DBM granules with pepsin to break the collagen matrix and solubilize the DBM. Pepsin-soluble DBM was purified by dialysis and freeze-dried. We then gelled the solubilized DBM with sodium bicarbonate in phosphate buffered saline. These results demonstrate that pepsin-soluble DBM is suitable for 3D bioprinting. Ongoing experimentation includes seeding bone-forming osteoblasts onto the gel and comparatively measuring osteoblast mineralization rate to osteoblasts on rat-tail derived collagen with Alizarin red staining.

By establishing a method to solubilize DBM and then gelate it, our aim is to establish a 3D printable DBM-based bone graft material. This research will lay the foundation for bioengineering personalized 3D bone grafts.

Keywords

bone graft, solubilized bone collagen, demineralized bone matrix, bioink, bioprinting

Research Area

Chemistry and Materials Science

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