Historic and current strategies in bone tissue engineering: do we have a hope in Hench?

Professors Larry Hench and Julia Polak formed the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Centre (TERM) at Imperial College London to foster collaborations between biologists and materials scientists. Early work at the center elucidated the biomolecular interactions between primary human osteoblasts and 45S5 Bioglass . As research efforts expanded, the team discovered that the dissolution products of both 45S5 Bioglass and 58S sol-gel bioactive glasses had osteoblastic stimulatory properties. To address the shortage of appropriate cells for bone tissue engineering applications, TERM scientists also demonstrated the differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells to osteoblasts when treated with the dissolution products of bioactive glasses. They also found that the soluble factors ascorbic acid, beta -glycerophosphate, and dexamethasone preferentially differentiated ES cells to osteoblasts, and their combination with the dissolution products of bioactive glasses stimulated differentiation even further. Taken together, these results demonstrate the suitability of bioactive glasses as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering as they not only provide an osteoconductive and osteoproductive substrate, but also actively stimulate cells to express appropriate osteoblastic phenotypes. Professor Hench's vision to pioneer regenerative medicine research continues with the aim of developing novel therapeutics to treat musculoskeletal disability.