Designing a tissue engineered bone to bone ligament replacement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Designing a robust process for clinical translation of tissue engineered bone to bone ligament replacements
IRAS ID
108406
Contact name
Liam Grover
Contact email
Research summary
A method has been developed to tissue engineer ligaments outside the body that are macroscopically similar to those found in the body and may be secured in place using an intimately bonded ceramic or metallic bracket. These structures have the potential to be used for the repair of selection of ligamentous and tendinous tissues throughout the body. To enable clinical translation of this technology, it is essential that a reproductible protocol is identified for their production in a clinically viable period of time (14 days)
The aim of this project is to develop a protocol that would allow the tissue engineered structure to be used in the pre-clinical trials. This would include the following objectives;
- producing a suitable infrastructure ie. brioreactor system that would allow mechanical loading of thw tissue in a clinically relevant manner
-establishing a protocol for the isolation of tenosytes (celss that make up a tendon ) from harvested human tissue
-identifying a full process map from harvesting to application of tissue engineered structure.Patients will be recruited from the Royal Othorpaedic Hospital where total knee replacement are performed. During knee replacement the anterior and posterior crucite ligaments are usually discarded. We will use this discarded tissue along woth 40mls of the patients blood to isolate the cells to form the new ligament. It is anticipated that the research will be over two years for all the objectives to be reached.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0791
Date of REC Opinion
21 May 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion