PolyVation joined a large European consortium to bring, the to be developed biomedical polymers in the project HydroZones, towards cGMP. HydroZones has been awarded near 10 mln Euro of the European Community for developing printable scaffolds with the aim to actively regenerate cartilage tissue.
The polymers are to be bioresorbable and will be based on advanced state-of-the-art molecular architectures with both structural and bioactive properties.
Cartilage damage is a major cause of chronic pain, decreased mobility and a reduced quality of life. Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease. It is estimated that more than 151 mln people are affected worldwide. It can be caused by sport accidents, but can also result from normal wear and tear during aging. It often starts with a small defect, which grows over time, because the body is not capable of regenerating articular cartilage tissue on its own. When large areas of the catilage layer are destroyed, a surgical intervention is usually unavoidable. Current clinical attempts to repair cartilage only result in the formation of temporary pain reduction and the formation of functionally insufficient repair tissue that does not resemble the layered structure of healthy hyaline cartilage. Hence, ultimately, the use of an artificial joint is usually unavoidable.
HydroZones aims to find ways the repair cartilage using advanced bioprinting technology and biofunctional hydrogel constructs.
More information on HydroZones can be found at www.hydrozones.eu