Development of a new injectable biomaterial for the treatment of bone diseases such as osteoporosis

According to Amisel Almirall, researcher of the BIOMAT and in charge of this project, “one of the main difficulties of medicine at present is the considerable increase of the pathologies related to bone problems. Half the chronic diseases suffered by people over 65 are related to articulation deficiencies; in addition, the number of bone fractures caused by osteoporosis and traffic accidents has doubled in the last ten years”.

The macro-porous calcium phosphate cement developed in this research centre, enriched with tricalcium phosphate and porogenic agents such as serum albumin, has high probabilities of improving the quality of life of patients with bone fragility, preventing them from breaking and allowing a better mobility.

Bone reconstitution

Almirall confirmed the docility of this compound and its capacity to be implanted in bones as an injectable filling in cases of gum cyst removal, preventing teeth weakening thanks to the fast reconstitution of the bone. According to her, the search for new materials to substitute different parts of the human body comes from the need of offering a batter quality of life to those persons who suffer chronic diseases without medical solution.

The injectable compound, obtained thanks to the collaboration between of Maria-Pau Ginebra, researcher from the División de Biomateriales (Biomaterials Division) of the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña (Technical University of Catalonia), is very similar to bone mineral composition and, as a result, it is very useful for tissue engineering, this is, for “sowing” cells of the patient in the material to implant it later.

The compound, which is still in research and with results published in the journals Revista Iberoamericana de Polímeros and Magazine Interscience, is easy to manipulate, of fast compression and has flexible properties similar to the reports of macro-porous materials in international scientific literature. If they were registered, it would be possible to substitute other similar materials such as Biobone, Norian SRS, Norian-CRS and Bonesource, produced in the First World and very expensive in the international market.