New method uses clays to grow human bones

Indian origin scientists are designing unique clay scaffolds which could help regenerate bones for people suffering damage due to injury, disease or age.
Dr Kalpana Katti, Dr Dinesh Katti and doctoral student Avinash Ambre from North Dakota State University, Fargo, have come up with a novel method that uses nanosized clays to make scaffolds to mineralise bone minerals such as hydroxyapatite.
Whether damaged by injury, disease or age, your body can't create new bone. Researchers are making strides in tissue engineering, designing scaffolds that may lead to ways to regenerate bone.
The research team's 3-D mesh scaffold is comprised of degradable materials that are compatible to human tissue. Over time, the cells generate bone and the scaffold deteriorates.

The nanoclays enhance the mechanical properties of the scaffold by enabling scaffold to bear load while bone generates, researchers said.
An interesting finding shows that the nanoclays also impart useful biological properties to the scaffold.

"The bio-mineralised nanoclays also impart osteogenic or bone-forming abilities to the scaffold to enable birth of bone," said Katti.
"Although it would have been exciting to say that this finding had a 'Eureka moment,' this discovery was a methodical exploration of simulations and modelling, indicating that amino acid modified nanoclays are viable new nanomaterials," said Katti.
The NDSU's group most recent study reported that nanoclays mediate human cell differentiation into bone cells and grow bone.

The research group uses amino acids, the building blocks of life, to modify clay structures and the modified nanoclays coax new bone growth.
"Our current research studies underway involve the use of bio-reactors that mimic fluid/blood flow in the human body during bone tissue regeneration," said Katti.