Title : Design of 3D bioengineered personalized scaffolds to potentiate bone ingrowth and angiogenic network for oral tissues reconstruction
Abstract:
Population ageing (>70 years) and associated risk factors (alcohol addiction and smoke - 85%) increase the number of oral cancer (more frequently, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma - HNSCC) cases requiring large bone defects repair, raising the need for bone and oral mucosa regenerative solutions. The development of novel approaches to treat maxillofacial bone defects deriving from tumor removal will require a customized architecture, bioactive and responsive properties. The development of innovative bone grafts shall foster patient-specific therapeutic solution, that will stimulate angiogenesis and bone regeneration, while avoiding patient-tumor regrowth. A biomimetic hybrid system will deliver chemical and biological clues for a critical bone defect repair and overcome current limitations related with mechanic and biological performance. Here, the bone complex void-space will be filled with a cellular approach device derived from dental tissues, providing an ideal 3D microenvironment to foster the formation of vascularized bone tissue throughout the bioengineered scaffold. The personalized biomimetic materials will be radically more efficient approach to treat large maxillofacial defects and offer new hope to patients with oral cancer, condition that affect circa of 8.9M patients/year with a treatment overall cost of 100M€/year. This breakthrough technology will positive impact on patients' prognosis, reducing post-operative problems and recovery time while enhancing their life quality.
