Development of a Degradable Hybrid Bioactive Coating for Osteoporotic Fracture Fixation Implants (Clustered Project #4)

Professor Yeung, Kelvin Wai Kwok   (Project Coordinator (PC))

Dr Wong Hoi Man   (Co-Investigator)

Dr Fok Woon Man Margaret   (Co-Investigator)

Professor Cheung Kenneth Man Chee   (Co-Investigator)

16

2016-03-01

2017-06-30

201600

Development of a Degradable Hybrid Bioactive Coating for Osteoporotic Fracture Fixation Implants (Clustered Project #4)

Degradable Hybrid Bioactive Coating, Osteoporotic Fracture Fixation Implants

Others - Medicine, Dentistry and Health

InP/025/16

Innovation and Technology Fund Internship Programme

2015

Completed

Osteoporosis increases the risk of bone fractures and poses a substantial public health problem. Osteoporotic-related bone fractures not only heavily burden patients in terms of morbidity, but also significantly increase socio-economic costs. Fracture fixation implants that include a series of screws and plates are the first-line treatment for these patients. However, implant failures such as screw loosening and the ""cut-out"" of bone by implanted screws have been frequently documented in this cohort of osteoporotic patients due to poor quality of bone and low bone mass. Therefore, to fix those post-operative complications additional surgery is needed, which may further challenge the patients physically and psychologically and also significantly elevate hospitals’ operation costs and social costs. Hence, our team has proposed to develop a bioactive coating on the surface of fixation implants in order to prevent the common complications of screw loosening and screw ""cut-out"". The bioactive coating comprising the FDA approved biodegradable polymer called polycaprolactone and magnesium micro-particles can reinforce the fixation at the bone-implant interface. Most importantly, the release of magnesium ions upon controlled coating degradation can stimulate local bone formation and hence reduce the healing time of the bone fracture. Our previous studies demonstrated that a small amount of magnesium ions (i.e. 50-100ppm) could up-regulate the in vitro bone cell activities and promote local bone formation in vivo. Hence, the technology innovation of this project is to control the release of magnesium ions at the level shown in our previous works. If successful, this newly developed degradable bioactive coating is expected to reduce the amount of implant-related post-operative complications in osteoporotic fracture patients, thereby greatly minimising the burden on patients and social costs due to hospitalisation.