Intralesional Injection of Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate for the Treatment of Osteonecrosis of the Knee Secondary to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Case Report

Case: An 18-year-old female patient with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and corticosteroid-associated extensive bilateral symptomatic knee Osteonecrosis (ON) (Ficat IV), treated with sequential intralesional injections of autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) under ultrasound guidance. At 3 months, pain was almost absent (VAS) and KOOS/WOMAC showed significant improvement sustained up to 24 months. At 12 months MRI indicated bone maturation, significantly reduced BM edema and subchondral fluid volume, and no collapse/fragmentation signs.

Discussion: The clinical and imaging significant improvement observed in this patient suggests that BMAC intralesional injections effectively restored the compromised bone structure. After larger studies, this technique can become an alternative to decompressing surgery for ON cases.

Development of functional biomaterials with micro- and nanoscale technologies for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications

Micro- and nanotechnologies have emerged as potentially effective fabrication tools for addressing the challenges faced in tissue engineering and drug delivery. The ability to control and manipulate polymeric biomaterials at the micron and nanometre scale with these fabrication techniques has allowed for the creation of controlled cellular environments, engineering of functional tissues and development of better drug delivery systems. In tissue engineering, micro- and nanotechnologies have enabled the recapitulation of the micro- and nanoscale detail of the cell's environment through controlling the surface chemistry and topography of materials, generating 3D cellular scaffolds and regulating cell-cell interactions. Furthermore, these technologies have led to advances in high-throughput screening (HTS), enabling rapid and efficient discovery of a library of materials and screening of drugs that induce cell-specific responses. In drug delivery, controlling the size and geometry of drug carriers with micro- and nanotechnologies have allowed for the modulation of parametres such as bioavailability, pharmacodynamics and cell-specific targeting. In this review, we introduce recent developments in micro- and nanoscale engineering of polymeric biomaterials, with an emphasis on lithographic techniques, and present an overview of their applications in tissue engineering, HTS and drug delivery.

An automated two-phase system for hydrogel microbead production

Polymeric beads have been used for protection and delivery of bioactive materials, such as drugs and cells, for different biomedical applications. Here, we present a generic two-phase system for the production of polymeric microbeads of gellan gum or alginate, based on a combination of in situ polymerization and phase separation. Polymer droplets, dispensed using a syringe pump, formed polymeric microbeads while passing through a hydrophobic phase. These were then crosslinked, and thus stabilized, in a hydrophilic phase as they crossed through the hydrophobic-hydrophilic interface. The system can be adapted to different applications by replacing the bioactive material and the hydrophobic and/or the hydrophilic phases. The size of the microbeads was dependent on the system parameters, such as needle size and solution flow rate. The size and morphology of the microbeads produced by the proposed system were uniform, when parameters were kept constant. This system was successfully used for generating polymeric microbeads with encapsulated fluorescent beads, cell suspensions and cell aggregates proving its ability for generating bioactive carriers that can potentially be used for drug delivery and cell therapy.

Cell-laden microengineered pullulan methacrylate hydrogels promote cell proliferation and 3D cluster formation

The ability to encapsulate cells in three-dimensional (3D) environments is potentially of benefit for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In this paper, we introduce pullulan methacrylate (PulMA) as a promising hydrogel platform for creating cell-laden microscale tissues. The hydration and mechanical properties of PulMA were demonstrated to be tunable through modulation of the degree of methacrylation and gel concentration. Cells encapsulated in PulMA exhibited excellent viability. Interestingly, while cells did not elongate in PulMA hydrogels, cells proliferated and organized into clusters, the size of which could be controlled by the hydrogel composition. By mixing with gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), the biological properties of PulMA could be enhanced as demonstrated by cells readily attaching to, proliferating, and elongating within the PulMA/GelMA composite hydrogels. These data suggest that PulMA hydrogels could be useful for creating complex, cell-responsive microtissues, especially for applications that require controlled cell clustering and proliferation.