Bone growth, organic templates

THE CHEMISTRY OF... Organic Templates Engineered to Mimic Bone Growth 86... 

Organic Templates Engineered to Mimic Bone Growth... 

CNTs are especially valued as implant materials thanks to their novel mechanical properties and surface functionability.35 They have been found to make an ideal scaffold for the growth of bone tissue.36 Moreover, many tissues and organs require bio-compatible substrates to facilitate tissue growth and implantation. The fabric made fom CNTs serves as an efficient tissue scaffold.36 Several publications demonstrate that CNTs can be used as a substrate for neuronal growth, and that modifications of the CNTs can be employed to modulate the development of neurons. This suggests that it may be possible to employ suitably functionalized CNTs as neural prostheses in neurite regeneration.35 Lipid bilayers have been developed using a nanotube template. 

In Nature, the nucleation and growth of mineralized materials are often controlled by organic macromolecules such as proteins and polysaccharides. Bone and teeth consist of a small amount of organic matrix which manipulates the formation of apatite into distinct microstructures suitable for the mechanical forces encountered in vivo [62]. The biomimetic synthesis of CaP within polymer matrices was reported to produce composites that could initiate osteogenesis when implanted in bony sites [63]. Polymers with distinct molecular organizations were used as a template to control the geometry of the apatite to mimic that found in bone. 

---