Research Projects

In a country like India, the percentage of the ageing population with bone defects is increasing with each and every year. Also, fractures and large bone defects occur due to variety of injuries. The development of bone replacement material is the need of the hour. Hence, the proposed project is aimed of giving remedy to the people who are suffering from bone disease. Human bone is mainly consisted of Hydroxyapatite (HA), cells, fibers, and collagen. HA is the major inorganic component of human bone. It exhibits high bioactivity, biocompatibility, and bone formability, and thus shows chemical interaction with host cells. It has been considered to be one of the most feasible materials for bone implant due to its osteointegrative and osteoconductive ability. However, there are still some shortcomings of HA, such as poor mechanical strength and brittleness that limit its application in implant applications. In recent years, tremendous efforts have been made to synthesis HA/Biopolymer composites to overcome such shortcomings. The shortcomings of HA can be tackle by supporting various materials. Especially, when Silk fibroin is reinforced with HA, resultant composite material with higher mechanical property is obtained for load bearing implant applications. Modern bone substitutes are found to be associated with several weaknesses, such as chronic inflammation, and poor biocompatibility and loosening of the implant; hence a secondary surgery is subsequently needed for the removal of the implant. Thus, there is an urgent need for an affordable, biologically and mechanically stable coated implant material that can overcome these issues and provide a viable option for patients. A modern bone implant material should have porous nature, mechanically strong enough, and close similarity to the framework of extracellular matrix of bone. Additionally, natural materials observable benefits, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity and easily biding concepts. Slug mucus offers strong tissue adhesion, hemostasis rapidly, and scar less wound healing and antioxidants. Cocoon silk composed of fibroin (SF) provides excellent mechanical strength, biocompatibility, and also biodegradable slug mucus incorporation it led to our tissue regeneration; promote cell adhesion and antioxidant activity. Among the above-mentioned characteristics the proposed composite material, snail shell derived hydroxyapatite reinforced with cocoon silk fibroin and then incorporated with slug mucus (HA/SF/SM) depicts all these properties that facilitate to make use of bone tissue regeneration applications. Also as formed composite is to be coated over the AZ31D Mg alloy for load bearing implant applications. The coated implants will be characterized by In-vitro and In-vivo studies.