Development of a porous 3D graphene-PDMS scaffold for improved osseointegration.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Osseointegration in orthopedic surgery plays an important role for bone implantation success. Traditional treatment of implant surface aimed at improved osseointegration has limited capability for its poor performance in supporting cell growth and proliferation. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a widely used silicon-based organic polymer material with properties that are useful in cosmetics, domestic applications and mechanical engineering. In addition, the biocompatibility of PDMS, in part due to the high solubility of oxygen, makes it an ideal material for cell-based implants. Notwithstanding its potential, a property that can inhibit PDMS bioactivity is the high hydrophobicity, limiting its use to date in tissue engineering. Here, we describe an efficient approach to produce porous, durable and cytocompatible PDMS-based 3D structures, coated with reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The RGO/PDMS scaffold has good mechanical strength and with pore sizes ranging from 10 to 600μm. Importantly, the scaffold is able to support growth and differentiation of human adipose stem cells (ADSCs) to an osteogenic cell lineage, indicative of its potential as a transition structure of an osseointegrated implant.

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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