Iranian Company Produces Injectable Bioactive Pastes for Damaged Bones

“Bioactive glass pastes are widely used, specially in minimally invasive surgeries and the repair of complex bone defects,” said Mehri Sohrabi, a PhD student in Materials Engineering at the University of Science and Technology.

She pointed to the use of bioactive materials, including hydroxyapatite and bioactive glasses in bone and tooth repair, and said, “These materials are known as suitable options due to their osteogenic guiding properties, non-toxicity, and ability to form chemical bonds with tissue. Hydrogels have also attracted attention due to their structural similarity to the extracellular matrix of natural tissues and their potential use in drug release and tissue repair systems.”

Sohrabi underlined the importance of biocompatibility and non-toxicity of injectable hydrogels, and said, "Natural polymers like hyaluronic acid and sodium alginate are widely used in this field due to their desirable properties."

“In this study, quercetin has been used for the first time in the composition of injectable pastes. Quercetin helps accelerate the repair of bone defects by providing osteogenesis guidance. The use of quercetin as a bone density enhancer has previously been approved orally and has also been investigated in polymer scaffolds and microspheres,” she noted.

In a relevant development last April, a group of Iranian researchers from Amirkabir University of Technology had also used mesenchymal cells and nanoparticles to develop a hydrogel for repairing lost bones which can release oxygen and magnesium ions.

The project titled ‘bone differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in a hydrogel scaffold with the ability to release oxygen and magnesium ions’ has reached the implementation stage by Mina Maleki and with the guidance of Reza Karimi Soflo and Akbar Karkhaneh at Amirkabir University of Technology.

“In this study, we used natural and inexpensive materials available locally in Iran, i.e. silk cocoons and natural alginate biopolymer, to make a hydrogel that turns into a gel and can fill the empty cavity completely when placed at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius, i.e. body temperature,” Maleki said.

“This hydrogel is actually a safe environment for stem cells because these cells are extracted from fat tissues and placed inside the hydrogel,” she added.

Noting that the hydrogel provides oxygen to the stem cells until the vessels are formed, Maleki said, “On the other hand, the magnesium ion that is released in a controlled manner causes the differentiation of bone cells. For this purpose, we made magnesium peroxide nanoparticles in a way that they can be converted into oxygen and magnesium in a controlled manner in the complex conditions of the body.”

“A completely new method was used to make carriers that keep these nanoparticles inside the hydrogels. This method is simple and the materials used in the carrier are also completely compatible with the body and cells, and after the release period of the materials, they are completely destroyed and the materials do not leave poison behind,” she underlined.

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