Advancing synthetic bone grafts: leveraging microRNAs and 3D-printing to enhance bone regeneration

Large bone defects are clinically challenging to treat, and the development of synthetic bone grafts is vital to overcome the limitations of traditional grafting methods. However, conventional tissue engineering strategies fail to produce synthetic grafts of clinically relevant sizes and often use a single material that cannot adequately provide all the structural and regenerative properties needed to effectively regenerate bone. Therefore, innovative approaches that combine advanced fabrication methods with multiple materials and regenerative molecules that encourage bone formation are key to creating synthetic grafts capable of enhancing regeneration for large defects.

MicroRNAs regulate a variety of biological processes, including bone formation, and miR-200c, a regenerative microRNA, has been shown to increase bone formation. However, synthetic bone grafts containing miR-200c have yet to be applied to treat large bone defects. This work investigates the development of synthetic bone grafts to deliver miR-200c for bone regeneration through the innovative combination of different materials, fabrication technologies, and drug incorporation methods. The objectives of this work further evaluate how different material combinations, scaffold fabrication methods, and delivery systems influence regeneration in large bone defects. This work also assesses the release of miR-200c from synthetic bone grafts and the effectiveness of miR-200c as a regenerative biomolecule for bone tissue engineering. The culmination of this work significantly advances the development of synthetic bone grafts with improved regenerative properties and supplies the field with novel, microRNA-based strategies to enhance bone regeneration to treat clinically challenging, patient-specific, large bone defects.