Katharina Schuhladen

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Development and characterization of new formulations of bioactive glasses for soft tissue engineering and wound healing

 

Investigator: Katharina Schuhladen (PhD Student)Katharina Schuhladen


Cauerstraße 6
91058 Erlangen

room 0.211

phone: 09131 85-20806

email: katharina.ks.schuhladen@fau.de

 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini

 

Due to their characteristic mechanical properties and inorganic nature, bioactive glasses (BGs) have been considered suitable biomaterials for applications in bone repair and replacement. Therefore, the use of bioactive glasses in soft tissue engineering and wound healing has been less investigated. However, some properties of bioactive glasses based on their high surface reactivity, which are necessary for hard tissue repair, make them also interesting for applications in soft tissue repair, as reviewed in the literature [1]. Moreover, it is well known that BGs can release in controlled way biologically active ions (B, Li, Cu, etc.) which are capable of stimulating wound healing being angiogenic and antibacterial [2,3]. The aim of this research project is the design, fabrication and characterization of a new family of BGs incorporating multiple biologically active ions (also known as bioinorganics), to use them for the fabrication of flexible composites for wound healing and soft tissue engineering applications.

[1] Miguez-Pacheco V, Hench LL & Boccaccini AR: Bioactive glasses beyond bone and teeth: Emerging applications in contact with soft tissues. Acta Biomaterialia 13 (2015) 1-15.

[2] Zhao, S., et al., Wound dressings composed of copper-doped borate bioactive glass microfibers stimulate angiogenesis and heal full-thickness skin defects in a rodent model. Biomaterials 53 (2015) 379–391.

[3] Haro Durand, LA, et al., In vitro endothelial cell response to ionic dissolution products from boron-doped bioactive glass in the SiO2–CaO–P2O5–Na2O system. J. Mater. Chem. B 2 (2014) 7620-7630.