Patrina S. P. Poh

• PhD
• Principal Investigator at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin

The treatment of large bone defects represents a major clinical challenge. 3D printed scaffolds appear as a promising strategy to support bone defect regeneration. The 3D design of such scaffolds impacts the healing path and thus defect regeneration potential. Among others, scaffold architecture has been shown to influence the healing outcome. Gyro...

The use of multiphasic scaffolds to treat injured tendon-to-bone entheses has shown promising results in vitro. Here, we used two versions of a biphasic silk fibroin scaffold to treat an enthesis defect created in a rat patellar model in vivo. One version presented a mixed transition between the bony and the tendon end of the construct (S-MT) while...

The dynamics of cell mechanics and epigenetic signatures direct cell behaviour and fate, thus influencing regenerative outcomes. In recent years, the utilisation of 2D geometric (i.e. square, circle, hexagon, triangle or round-shaped) substrates for investigating cell mechanics in response to the extracellular microenvironment have gained increasin...

Bioactive glasses (BGs) are attractive materials for bone tissue engineering because of their bioactivity and osteoinductivity. In this study, we report the synthesis of a novel phosphorous pentoxide-free, silicate-based bioactive glass (52S-BG) composed of 52.1% SiO2, 23.2% Na2O and 22.6% CaO (wt%). The glass was thoroughly characterized. The bioc...

We present a three dimensional, time dependent model for bone regeneration in the presence of porous scaffolds to bridge critical size bone defects. Our approach uses homogenized quantities, thus drastically reducing computational cost compared to models resolving the microstructural scale of the scaffold. Using abstract functional relationships in...

Lesions involving the osteochondral unit are difficult to treat. Biomimetic scaffolds are previously shown as promising alternative. Such devices often lack multiple functional layers that mimic bone, cartilage, and the interface. In this study, multilayered scaffolds are developed based on the use of natural extracellular matrix (ECM)‐like biopoly...

Tissue engineering in combination with stem cell technology has the potential to revolutionize human healthcare. It aims at the generation of artificial tissues that can mimic the original with complex functions for medical applications. However, even the best current designs are limited in size, if the transport of nutrients and oxygen to the cell...

Evasion of programmed cell death represents a critical form of oncogene addiction in cancer cells. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning cancer cell survival despite the oncogenic stress could provide a molecular basis for potential therapeutic interventions. Here we explore the role of pro-survival genes in cancer cell integrity duri...

The 1970s saw the maturation of the composite industry and the beginning of research on composite materials for tissue regeneration, aiming at replacing damaged or lost tissues with structurally and functionally relevant biological substitutes. This chapter gives an overview of the recent research on polymer-based composites for musculoskeletal tis...

Additive manufacturing (AM) presents the possibility of personalized bone scaffolds with unprecedented structural and functional designs. In contrast to the earlier conventional design concepts, e.g., raster-angle, a workflow was established to produce scaffolds with triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) architecture. A core challenge is the reali...

This paper deals with the simultaneous optimization of a subset O 0 of some domain Ω and its complement O 1 = Ω ∖ O 0 ¯ both considered as separate elastic objects subject to a set of loading scenarios. If one asks for a configuration which minimizes the maximal elastic cost functional both phases compete for space since elastic shapes usually get...

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly emerging technology that has the potential to produce personalized scaffolds for tissue engineering applications with unprecedented control of structural and functional design. Particularly for bone defect regeneration, the complex coupling of biological mechanisms to the scaffolds’ properties has led to a p...

Ceramic materials mimic the mineral composition of native bone and feature osteoconductive properties; they are therefore used to regenerate bone tissue. Much research focuses on increasing the porosity and pore interconnectivity of ceramic scaffolds to increase osteoconductivity, cell migration and cell-cell interaction. We aimed to fabricate bioc...

Scaffolds made of biodegradable biomaterials are widely used to guide bone regeneration. Commonly, in vitro assessment of scaffolds’ osteogenesis potential has been performed predominantly in monoculture settings. Hence, this study evaluated the potential of an unstimulated, growth factor-free co-culture system comprised of osteoblasts (OB) and per...

Assessment of bone graft material efficacy is difficult in humans, since invasive methods like staged CT scans or biopsies are ethically unjustifiable. Therefore, we developed a novel large animal model for the verification of a potential transformation of synthetic bone graft substitutes into vital bone. The model combines multiple imaging methods...

We consider a simple one-dimensional time-dependent model for bone regeneration in the presence of a bio-resorbable polymer scaffold. Within the framework of the model, we optimize the effective mechanical stiffness of the polymer scaffold together with the regenerated bone matrix. The result of the optimization procedure is a scaffold porosity dis...

We consider a simple one-dimensional time-dependent model for bone regeneration in the presence of a bio-resorbable polymer scaffold. Within the framework of the model, we optimize the effective mechanical stiffness of the polymer scaffold together with the regenerated bone matrix. The result of the optimization procedure is a scaffold porosity dis...

This paper deals with the simulateneous optimization of a subset $\mathcal{O}_0$ of some domain $\Omega$ and its complement $\mathcal{O}_1 = \Omega \setminus \overline{\mathcal{O}}_0$ both considered as separate elastic objects subject to a set of loading scenarios. If one asks for a configuration which minimizes the maximal elastic cost functional...

Extremely low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field (ELF-PEMF) devices have been used in the clinic for the treatment of bone disorders over the past 30 years. However, the underlying mechanism of which ELF-PEMFs exert an effect on tissues at a cellular level is not well understood. Hence, in this study, we explored the potential of different ELF-...

Background: Capsular contracture is one of the most common complications in surgical interventions for aesthetic breast augmentation or post‑mastectomy breast reconstruction involving the use of silicone prostheses. Although the precise cause of capsular contracture is yet unknown, the leading hypothesis is that it is caused by long‑term unre‑solve...

Statement of significance: Regeneration of the tendon/ligament-to-bone interface (enthesis) is of significance in the repair of ruptured tendons/ligaments to bone to improve implant integration and clinical outcome. This study proposes a novel approach for enthesis regeneration based on a biomimetic and integrated tendon/ligament-to-bone construct...

Treatment of chronic lymphedema is clinically challenging and healing is still only possible in some rare cases. Besides the gold standard of complex decongestive therapy (CDT), reconstructive surgical techniques are used, with microvascular lymph node transplantation the most promising procedure. We introduced the technique, which was first descri...

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) was used to evaluate the effects of single-agent and combination treatment regimens in a spheroid-based animal model of ovarian cancer. Ovarian tumour xenografts grown in non-obese diabetic/severe-combined-immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice were treated with carboplatin or paclitaxel, or combinat...

The principle of tissue engineering is to create a three-dimensional(3D) scaffold embedded with functional cells, which could be transplanted into human body and promote tissue and organ regeneration. However, the size of engineered tissue constructs is mainly constrained by diffusion limitation. In any tissue constructs, it is essential for embedd...

The potential of the copolymer polycaprolactone-co-poly-d,l-lactic acid (PCLLA) as a biomaterial for scaffold-based therapy for breast tissue engineering applications was assessed. First, the synthesized PCLLA was evaluated for its processability by means of additive manufacturing (AM). We found that the synthesized PCLLA could be fabricated into s...

Polycaprolactone (PCL)-based composite scaffolds containing 50 wt% of 45S5 bioactive glass (45S5) or strontium-substituted bioactive glass (SrBG) particles were fabricated into scaffolds using melt-extrusion based additive manufacturing technique. Additionally, the PCL scaffolds were surface coated with a layer of calcium phosphate (CaP). For a com...

Statement of significance: This novelty of this research work is that it provide a comprehensive comparison, both in vitro and in vivo, between 3 different composite materials widely used in the field of bone tissue engineering for their bone regeneration capabilities. The materials used in this study include polycaprolactone, 45S5 Bioglass, stron...

The application of additive biomanufacturing represents one of the most rapidly advancing areas of biomedical science, in which engineers, scientists, and clinicians are contributing to the future of health care. The combined efforts of a large number of groups around the globe have developed a strong research thrust that has resulted in a large nu...

Hydrogels are commonly used biomaterials for tissue engineering. With their high-water content, good biocompatibility and biodegradability they resemble the natural extracellular environment and have been widely used as scaffolds for 3D cell culture and studies of cell biology. The possible size of such hydrogel constructs with embedded cells is li...

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a resorbable polymer used extensively in bone tissue engineering owing to good structural properties and processability. Strontium substituted bioactive glass (SrBG) has the ability to promote osteogenesis and may be incorporated into scaffolds intended for bone repair. Here we describe for the first time, the development...

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Here we fabricate and characterize bioactive composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications. 45S5 Bioglass® (45S5) or strontium-substituted bioactive glass (SrBG) were incorporated into polycaprolactone (PCL) and fabricated into 3D bioactive composite scaffolds utilizing additive manufacturing technology. We show that composite scaffo...