Replacement ceramics
Tomsk scientists are developing ceramic analogues of natural bone
Natalia Sharapova, TSULast year, work on the project was completed, which resulted in a unique development for Russia – prosthetics of small joints (fingers and toes) made of nanoceramics.
It was created by the staff of the Laboratory of Physics of Nanostructured Functional Materials of IFPM SB RAS and the Department of Strength Theory and Design of FTF TSU together with CJSC Biomedical Technologies (Moscow).
New assignmentThe research team of TSU and IFPM under the leadership of Professor Sergey Kulkov has been engaged in ceramic materials for medical purposes for ten years.
Actually, research in the field of nanoceramics has been conducted before, but at first they were aimed at developing parts for the machine-building and aviation industries. Nanoceramics compares favorably with steel – it is lighter and at the same time stronger. And then the idea arose to use this material in medicine as well – as bone prostheses, since ceramics are as close to bone tissue as possible in their structure, unlike metals.
– Nanoceramic products can be made both dense, monolithic, and porous. We create a special porous structure that is as close as possible to the natural bone, and in fact it can replace any bone in the body, – says Sergey Nikolaevich. – As a material, we use zirconium oxides, aluminum or mixtures thereof. They are safe for the body, are included in the ISO international registry.
However, just creating a porous ceramic prosthesis does not mean solving the problem. It may happen that the body will not accept the foreign material, and the bone, instead of sprouting into it, will begin to collapse. Therefore, it is important to endow ceramics with such properties that will help to "introduce" it into the body without further rejection.
Physicists are engaged in this together with the Chemical Faculty of TSU – the Department of High Molecular Compounds and Petrochemistry and the Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry. CF develops special coatings that are applied to the surface inside the pores. Various factors depend on the composition of the coating. For example, it is possible to make a ceramic bone wetted with one liquid and not wetted with another, react to some drugs and be inert to others.
Well, then doctors and biologists join the research. Cells are sown on the surface of ceramic samples, and their reproduction is monitored. If the cells feel good and actively begin to produce calcium-phosphate compounds, then such a material has every chance of becoming a substitute for natural bone. Moreover, it is inexpensive, and it is possible to make prostheses individually for each person.
In collaboration with doctorsThe Novosibirsk Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics has been a medical partner in this study for several years.
And in 2011, the Federal Target Program grant was won jointly with the University of Crete, one of the leading biomedical technologies in Europe. Tomsk scientists created samples of ceramic bone, and Greek colleagues investigated its "interaction" with cells.
Another partner is Moscow–based Biomedical Technologies CJSC. Together with them, according to the project of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, work was carried out in 2012-2013 to create small joints. The project was funded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Cytotoxic tests have already been carried out, the development is being certified by the Ministry of Health and is being prepared for clinical trials. The release of these products to the market is especially important, because today there are no analogues in Russia – neither their own nor foreign.
And recently Tomsk doctors have also become interested in the works of scientists. Now, by order of the Design Bureau, the development of intervertebral prostheses made of ceramics has begun. And it is planned to create a sample of a ceramic jaw for the Research Institute of Oncology.
– The most important component of success is complexity, interdisciplinarity, only on this path we can do something, – Sergey Kulkov believes. – That's why chemists are important here, and materials scientists, and doctors, and biologists.
In total, about 30 employees of the department and laboratory are engaged in research in this direction, half of them are young people. Over the past four years, 6 candidate's and one doctoral dissertation have been defended on topics related to medical materials science.
To the world levelScientific research and the creation of new developments for medicine today is one of the most urgent tasks that society poses to scientists.
And these studies are actively supported, especially if they have a real result.
The scientific group headed by Sergey Kulkov has won 15 grants over the past five years only under two Federal Target Program programs – "Personnel of Innovative Russia" and "Research and Development in priority areas", including 8 grants from young scientists of the department and laboratory. She also formed a comprehensive program of the full cycle of the technology platform "Medicine of the Future", which includes about 20 more organizations from all over Russia – universities, research institutes, industrial enterprises, medical institutions.
And in the near future, on the basis of this direction, TSU plans to create a world–class laboratory of medical materials science, which will unite scientists from various organizations, including foreign ones: Germany, England, Italy, Greece, Hungary. Nobel laureate in Chemistry Dan Shechtman has been invited to lead the laboratory.
According to Sergey Kulkov, this laboratory must necessarily be interdisciplinary and have an educational component, exist in close cooperation with departments so that students can participate in advanced research. This is the key to success.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.02.2014