Collagen-based implant materials with central agent depot for the therapy of bone defects

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Gelinsky
• Subject Area: Biomaterials
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 451966134

The concept of in situ tissue engineering (TE) could open up new treatment options, e.g. for extensive or non-healing bone defects. In contrast to the classic TE, no cells are implanted, so that the costs and the approval effort for such implants are lower. The present transfer project builds on the work of sub-project M4 (Establishment of the new approach `in situ tissue engineering΄ for bone defect healing) of the completed SFB/Transregio 79 and is to further develop the concept investigated there with an application partner for use in the clinic. At the end of TR79, a biomimetic bone substitute material made of mineralized collagen has been developed, which is loaded with chemoattractive substances in a central depot. It could be shown that the concentration gradient established in an aqueous environment stimulates the migration of mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial cells into the scaffold and thus promotes defect healing compared to unmodified scaffolds.The focus of the transfer project is now (1) the transfer of scaffold production to clinically approved, equine collagen and the development of an industrially feasible process chain, (2) the investigation of alternative depot components for controlled drug release with the aim of expanding the range of applications of the drug-containing implants, (3) the exploration of new, suitable strategies for the introduction of the drug depot, (4) the study of the sterilisability and shelf life of implants containing the drug deposit, (5) the standardization of the production of chemoattractive drug mixtures from hypoxia-conditioned medium and (6) the testing of the usability of the scaffold system for the local release of antibiotics. A respected manufacturer of collagen-based medical devices was won as an application partner.The transfer project is based on solid preparatory work and a large number of publications that have resulted from the work in the SFB/TR 79

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: RESORBA® Medical GmbH
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Anja Lode