Study of the circumstance influence on the elemental distribution in ancient animal bone using μ-XRF

Elemental analysis of archaeological bone plays an important role in the study of the dietary habits of ancient animals. The elemental characteristic of diagenetic skeletons depends on the surrounding circumstance. The study of environmental influence on the elemental concentration of ancient bone is significant. In this paper, the diagenetic influence on archaeological skeletons is analyzed by microbeam X-ray fluorescence （p.-XRF）. The results show that the enamel is an excellent barrier to the diagenesis and the element Sr in bone isn＇t susceptible to contamination from the buried environment.     

Dose in Skeleton and Bone Marrow following Thorotrast Injection into Blood

The calculation of the dose rate and cumulative dose in the morrow-free skeleton and bone marrow of thorotrast patients presupposes the knowledge of both the translocation of thorium daughters to the skeleton, and the portion of ²³²Th that is localized in colloidal form in the bone marrow. Whereas in bon marrow ²²⁸Th is in equilibrium with ²³²Th up to only 20%, in marrow-free skeleton ²²⁸Th is present in excess to ²³²Th (average activity ratio 1·75), considering the measured activity ratios between ²³²Th and its daughters as well as the distribution of the colloid and the unclides of the thorium decay chain within the organism the dose rate and cumulative dose in bone marrow and marrow-free bone were calculated as function of the time of thorotrast burden and the amount of injected material.     

Nanoindentation of wet and dry compact bone: Influence of environment and indenter tip geometry on the indentation modulus

The indentation-derived elastic modulus, E, of bovine compact bone was obtained by nanoindentation. The indentation modulus of the dry condition (i.e. under atmospheric conditions) is 40% higher than when measured wet (i.e. immersed in buffer solution). Although this difference is independent of orientation, there is a 20% difference in the indentation modulus within the same tested environment between longitudinal and transversal directions. In addition, the estimated indentation modulus of the same samples when tested wet in buffer solution after deep freezing (?15°C) was not affected. The discrepancy between wet and dry results was attributed to the non-mineralized phase contribution and rationalized by a simple mechanical model [I. Jäger and P. Fratzl, Biophys. J. 79 (2000) p.1737]. Anisotropy effects could be explained in terms of deformation mechanisms with orientation. The effect of frozen storage temperatures may be clarified considering the biomechanics of the helicoidal arrangement of lamellar bone. Viscoelastic effects were also considered and incorporated into analysis of the force–displacement data.     

胺解改性聚L-谷氨酸苄酯引导骨再生膜的制备

以聚L-谷氨酸苄酯(PBLG)为原料, 通过溶剂浇铸与粒子沥滤法分别构建PBLG单层致密和PBLG单层多孔膜, 利用乙醇胺对薄膜表面改性, 构筑双层引导骨再生膜. 研究了不同胺解改性时间对PBLG-s-PHEG双层膜亲水性和力学性能的影响, 结果表明, 随着PBLG分子量的增大, 薄膜的力学性能增强而降解速率减缓. 延长胺解改性时间可提高薄膜亲水性和体内外降解速率. 细胞实验结果表明, 双层薄膜的致密结构能够有效阻隔成纤维细胞的侵入, 多孔结构能够支持细胞贴壁黏附和铺展. 体外生物活性评价结果表明, 表面改性的PBLG基材料可用于体内骨缺损修复. 本文所构建的双层引导骨再生膜在体外具有良好的力学性能和降解性能, 与组织具有一定的贴合性, 同时可有效阻碍成纤维细胞侵入, 具有潜在应用价值.     

Molecular Mechanism Study on Effect of Biodegradable Amino Acid Ester–Substituted Polyphosphazenes in Stimulating Osteogenic Differentiation

Amino acid ester substituted polyphosphazenes are osteoactive benefiting from their phosphorus‐containing chemical structure, which highlights interests in bone tissue engineering. To correlate their chemical structures with cell activities, in this study, poly[(ethyl alanato)_0.3(ethyl glycinato)_0.7phosphazene] (PAGP) and poly[(ethyl phenylalanato)_0.3(ethyl glycinato)_0.7phosphazene] (PPGP) are synthesized to carry out studies on cell osteogenic differentiation. In the non‐contact culture manner, bone mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) are cultured in transwell chambers containing PAGP or PPGP films, while the cells and the materials do not contact. In the contact culture manner, BMSCs are cultured on the PAGP or PPGP films. In the meantime, solutions containing PAGP or PPGP degradation products (i.e., phosphate, ammonium, and corresponding amino acids) are applied for cell culture using inorganic phosphate (Pi) ion as control. Thus, the influences from substrate surface and degradation products can be identified separately. The results reveal that both the phosphorus‐containing surface of PAGP and PPGP films and their degradation products play significant roles in regulating cell behaviors. In comparison with PAGP, PPGP seems able to provide relatively stable phosphorus‐containing surface to strengthen the cell‐scaffold interaction because of its slower degradation rate and higher Young's modulus, leading to greater promotion in osteogenic differentiation via contact effect.     

Precisely Controlled Delivery of Abaloparatide through Injectable Hydrogel to Promote Bone Regeneration

Side‐effects from allograft, limited bone stock, and site morbidity from autograft are the major challenges to traditional bone defect treatments. With the advance of tissue engineering, hydrogel injection therapy is introduced as an alternative treatment. Therapeutic drugs and growth factors can be carried by hydrogels and delivered to patients. Abaloparatide, as an analog of human recombinant parathyroid hormone protein (PTHrp) and an alternative to teriparatide, has been considered as a drug for treating postmenopausal osteoporosis since 2017. Since only limited cases of receiving abaloparatide with polymeric scaffolds have been reported, the effects of abaloparatide on pre‐osteoblast MC3T3‐E1 are investigated in this study. It is found that in vitro abaloparatide treatment can promote pre‐osteoblast MC3T3‐E1 cells’ viability, differentiation, and mineralization significantly. For the drug delivery system, 3D porous structure of the methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) hydrogel is found effective for prolonging the release of abaloparatide (more than 10 days). Therefore, injectable photo‐crosslinked GelMA hydrogel is used in this study to prolong the release of abaloparatide and to promote healing of defected bones in rats. Overall, data collected in this study show no contradiction and imply that Abaloparatide‐loaded GelMA hydrogel is effective in stimulating bone regeneration.     

An Injectable,Bifunctional Hydrogel with Photothermal Effects for Tumor Therapy and Bone Regeneration

Significant attention has been focused on bone tumor therapy recently. At present, the treatment in clinic typically requires surgical intervention. However, a few tumor cells remain around bone defects after surgery and subsequently proliferate within several days. Thus, fabrication of biomaterials with dual functions of tumor therapy and bone regeneration is significant. Herein, the injectable hydrogel containing cisplatin (DDP) and polydopamine‐decorated nano‐hydroxyapatite is prepared via Schiff base reaction between the aldehyde groups on oxidized sodium alginate and amino groups on chitosan. The hydrogel exhibits sustained release properties for DDP due to the immobilization of DDP via abundant functional groups on polydopamine (PDA). Additionally, given the intense absorption of PDA in the near‐infrared region, the hydrogel exhibits excellent photothermal effects when exposed to the NIR laser (808 nm). Based on the properties, the hydrogel effectively ablates tumor cells (4T1 cells) in vitro and suppresses tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, the hydrogel promotes the adhesion and proliferation of bone mesenchymal stem cells in vitro due to the abundant functional groups on PDA and further induces bone regeneration in vivo. Therefore, the study extends research on novel biomaterials with dual functions of tumor therapy and bone regeneration.     

Reproducibility of the quantitative assessment of cartilage morphology and trabecular bone structure with magnetic resonance imaging at 7 T

To assess the reproducibility of quantitative measurements of cartilage morphology and trabecular bone structure of the knee at 7 T, high-resolution sagittal spoiled gradient-echo images and high-resolution axial fully refocused steady-state free-precession (SSFP) images from six healthy volunteers were acquired with a 7-T scanner. The subjects were repositioned between repeated scans to test the reproducibility of the measurements. The reproducibility of each measurement was evaluated using the coefficient(s) of variation (CV). The computed CV were 1.13% and 1.55% for cartilage thickness and cartilage volume, respectively, and were 2.86%, 1.07%, 2.27% and 3.30% for apparent bone volume over total volume fraction (app.BV/TV), apparent trabecular number (app.Tb.N), apparent trabecular separation (app.Tb.Sp) and apparent trabecular thickness (app.Tb.Th), respectively. The results demonstrate that quantitative assessment of cartilage morphology and trabecular bone structure is reproducible at 7 T and motivates future musculoskeletal applications seeking the high-field strength's superior signal-to-noise ratio.