Bone modeling adaptation as a method for promoting development of bone tissue engineered construct in vitro

SummaryIt was widely accepted that bone adjusts its mass and structure to altered external mechanical environment. In the modeling process, in vivo bone increases bone formation in order to adapt to overload strains. Therefore the bone modeling adaptation as a method may be applied to promote the development of bone tissue engineered construct in vitro. External mechanical force subjected on cell-seeded scaffolds during culture produces overload zone strains in construct, which activates bone cells differentiation and/or extracellular matrix deposition, and promotes bone formation on the interior surface of scaffolds. The mechanical environment enhances the development of bone tissue engineered construct, which recreates the process of bone modeling. Though the overload strains will be restore to the adaptation zone strains due to modeling adaptation, the overload strains made by increasing the amount of external force step by step always remain the bone-forming state of construct. The development of construct will be in progress to accommodate to the new mechanical environment until the bone-like construct is obtained. The method may not only accomplish the bone formation on the base of template (scaffold), but also optimize the mechanical properties of new formation, and finally may produce the off-the-shelf, bone-like substitutes.