Overview
Project status: In progress
Whilst much research has been undertaken to try to understand the healing response that is initiated following a bone fracture, the understanding for the exact mechanisms that govern the complex, orchestrated events during fracture healing remains limited. Furthermore, it is unclear how and to what extent these events are controlled by biological and biophysical stimuli, and how they are affected by mechanical stimulation.
Although nowadays most fractures treated clinically heal successfully and within reasonable time periods, about 5-10% of fractures lead to delayed or non-unions which necessitate additional surgeries with significant associated costs. In order to optimise fracture healing in these patients it is critical to investigate the influence of the mechanical and biological environment on the molecular signalling pathways further in a reliable and reproducible model.
- Research leader
- Organisational unit
- Lead unit Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation Other units
Dr Roland SteckDetails
A miniature internal fixation plate applied to a match for demonstration of its size. Post-mortem radiographs of mouse femora, 5 weeks after osteotomy and fixation.
The bone stabilised with the rigid fixation plates (left) shows no callus, suggesting primarily intramembraneous ossification, whereas the callus of the flexibly stabilised bone (right) is slowly being remodelled.
With the development of transgenic mouse models and the decoding of the mouse genome, new opportunities are opening up for the study of the influence of the different molecular pathways on bone fracture healing. To contribute to these exciting new developments, we are establishing a novel murine fracture and fixation model in the Traumatology Research Group with an implant and instrument system created by the AO Development Institute in Davos, Switzerland. This system has the potential to become a new standard for murine fracture healing studies, which would allow researchers around the world to compare their results directly. It is our aim to use this model, in collaboration with leading local, and international bone biology research groups to investigate a variety of specific research questions related to fracture healing.
Furthermore, the results of the studies performed with this model will provide invaluable information for the computational simulation of fracture healing, which is currently pursued by other members of the Traumatology Research Group. In turn, the computational simulations will enable to identify knowledge gaps in the understanding of fracture healing and therefore help design highly targeted research questions that can be addressed experimentally with this murine fracture model in future studies.
