Porous polymeric material made from collagen and chitosan (credit: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University)Researchers in Russia have produced a new type of polymeric material that could find applications in tissue engineering and cellular transplantation. With tissue engineering especially seen as a key area of medical study, scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg State Medical University and St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a porous 3D material made from collagen and chitosan that could help restore parts of bone lost due to trauma or illness.
Using artificial organs for transplant is seen as increasingly crucial in the development of new medical procedures, with success to some extent depending on biocompatible and bioresorbable polymer materials. Here, the team have devised a way to produce biocompatible materials that stimulate the restoration of natural tissues, as well as achieving a means to regulate the resorption time of the materials, as it is vital that newly implanted materials do not disintegrate before the new fabric is formed.
As reported in the journal Cell and Tissue Biology [Popryadukhin et al. Cell Tissue Biol. (2018) DOI: 10.1134/S1990519X18030094], these unique and highly porous cylinder-shaped 3D matrices can be implanted into damaged liver tissue, bones or vessels saturated with the cells of these organs. As collagen and chitosan are both biocompatible, the body does not reject them as foreign objects. Over time, the matrix decomposes and the artificial tissue becomes replaced by natural tissue.
“We are not deceiving nature, we are just helping it to cope with a medical problem"Vladimir Yudin
As researcher Vladimir Yudin said, “We are not deceiving nature, we are just helping it to cope with a medical problem. Experts are currently debating whether it is better to use an implant or restore an organ. A person with an artificial organ must take medication for the rest of their lifetime to prevent the body from rejecting it. This is not the case for tissue grown from human cells.”
From preclinical studies, it was demonstrated that full resorption of the matrix occurred only six weeks after their implantation into liver tissue and three weeks after implantation into the muscle tissue of animals, with surrounding tissues being neither altered nor damaged. At the same time, the material itself also started to decompose, and as the resorption of matrix collagen occurred, connective natural tissue and blood vessels were found to have formed. In addition, covers for wounds, suture threads and prostheses of blood vessels were produced, with the in vivo preclinical trials showing them to be effective.