Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues, such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, allowing them to handle weight more successfully. Andres Garcia, professor of mechanical engineering, and his team were also able to implant the technology in vivo for several weeks. One application could be anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery.
The engineers created the tissue by coating a three-dimensional polymer scaffold with a gene delivery vehicle that encodes a transcription factor known as Runx2. They generated a high concentration of Runx2 at one end of the scaffold, and decreased that amount until they ended up with no transcription factor on the other end. They then seeded skin fibroblasts uniformly onto the scaffold. The skin cells on the parts of the scaffold with a high concentration of Runx2 turned into bone, while the skin cells on the scaffold end with no Runx2 turned into soft tissue.
