IALH Research Fellows Stephanie Willerth and Josh Giles have collaborated with Gabriella C. J. Lindberg to write an editorial entitled Editorial: Novel Biomaterial Strategies for Osteogenic Treatments. The article was published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
First paragraph:
Our musculoskeletal system enables our body’s movement and function. Accordingly, diseases and disorders that inhibit these functions can have an enormous impact on the quality of life for patients suffering from them. For example, osteoarthritis results from the body’s inability to regenerate its joints after injury. Approximately 528 million people world-wide suffers from this disease, with a high prevalence (10%–14%) reported in adult populations across North America, North Africa, Middle East and Australasia by public health agencies. This disabling joint disease generates a significant socioeconomic burden on the healthcare system, with direct costs ranging between 1% and 2.5% of the gross national product, generating $65.5 billion annually in direct medical costs in the US alone (2008–2014). Likewise, the global market for bone implants is estimated to range from $40 to $70 billion, depending on the source of reporting. These implants are used to treat diseased and damaged bones and examples include metal implants as replacements for missing bone tissue or damaged hip and knee joints. Current metallic implants serve as an end-stage solution to treat predominant pain symptoms as it is costly, highly invasive and the available implants does not restore full function of the bones or joint, nor do they last a lifetime. New implant technologies, which can combine a wide range of surface modifications, signaling molecules and cells with biomaterials to instead drive the regeneration of healthy joint tissues and modulate local immune cell activation are thus highly attractive alternatives. These advanced treatment paradigms ultimately seek to fully repair and maintain the native tissue function and longevity after injection or transplantations. This Research Topic contains four research studies and one review article that have examined unique strategies for promoting osteogenesis–the generation of bone tissues.
To read the full article, see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1137760/full