Female Veterinarians Shaping innovations in Animal research and Healthcare
Dr Rekha Pathak
Principal Scientist, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar- 243122, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India
ARTICLE
The utilization of biomaterials in the permanent restoration of lost tissue has presented viable solutions to meet the clinical challenges within the musculoskeletal system. This article aims to conduct a comprehensive examination of the shared attributes inherent in biomaterials employed for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications.
Biomaterials employed in tissue engineering applications of various forms, such as carriers like collagen gel, tendon grafts, bone grafts or scaffolds are important to regenerate the lost tissue. This plays a crucial role in facilitating the generation of an extracellular matrix by adherent tissue constituents, ensuring the production of a matrix that closely mimics the native tissue without introducing any potentially disruptive framework substances.
- Collagen gel and powder was developed for the wound healing and surgical corrections
- On the other hand and composite polymers were incorporated at appropriate proportions with bone granules for bone gap / segmental loss repair, they possess well-defined pore sizes, allowing for efficient diffusion of nutrients to support and sustain embedded cells responsible for tissue reconstruction and also more mouldable into any shape to either fill the gap defect of bone or serve as a segmental bone graft of any desirable shape.
- Bioactive collagen gel was inspired by addition of stem cells in treating third degree burn wounds, infected-complicated wound healing.
- The injectable collagen gel was employed in long standing, non-healing complicated wounds in dairy animals.
- Collagen powder was employed in healing of infected wounds of dairy animals and other ruminants. Bioinspired collagen gel was employed in several hundred cases including all the species and clinical cases presented at RVP, ICAR-IVRI and cases from the NGOs.
An appropriate biomatrix is a key structural element for tissue regeneration since a provisional extracellular matrix is required to support the highly organized repair processes involved.
Table 1. Shows the various stages of wound (contaminated /complicated/ extensive/ longstanding) healing with the collagen gel in just 20 days
DAY 0 DAY 10 DAY 20
The various Fracture fixation techniques was employed in repair of fractures including external skeletal fixation (ESF), circular ESF, hanging pin cast techniques to stabilize fractures in large and small ruminants. Bioinspired bone grafts was employed in comminuted fractures and resulted in early callus formation which was achieved by 21 days and stability was gained by 30 days where as normal fracture healing also takes more than 60 days.
- Bone granules and chips were developed to incorporate in segmental defect filling, in various species. The bioactive Bone composite with polymer and composite with stem cells were used to regenerate critical sized bone defects. Bone graft (decellularized ECM) was employed in constructing orthopaedic surgical cases for stabilization of fracture repair.The biomaterial must degrade along with the reconstruction of the newly build tissue. The degradation products must not affect the tissue regeneration and remodelling process. These requirements are fulfilled with well adjustable properties of the biomaterial such as an appropriate substructure, charge conditions, permeability, pore size, degradation rate, mechanical properties.
Scaffolds act as porous analogues to the extracellular matrix of the tissue targeted for regeneration. These diverse material forms serve as delivery vehicles for cells responsible for reconstructing lost tissue within the body. Collectively, these materials and constructs create a conducive cellular environment that aims to establish optimal conditions for both the proliferation and, more challengingly, the redifferentiation of desired tissue cells.
Table 2. Shows the various steps of bone-gel graft implantation in communited fracture and recovery by day 21
Bone composite grafts for comminuted fractures of canine.
Radiographic images at various intervals.
- The decellularized tendon grafts were developed and tendon grafting was employed in contracted tendon cases of several hundreds of cases in ruminants, ACL repair in dogs and extended stifle was corrected using tendon grafts. The cut and contaminated tendon segments when removed left a tendon gap defect which made the two torn/cut edges to appose with each other and hence required grafting. The grafts were put in the place with tendon sutures and treated so as to make the large animals stand and walk normal.
- One of the most prevalent conditions in ruminants is obstructive urolithiasis where the urinary flow is obstructed and if left untreated the animals may die of uremia and toxemia. This is a very common condition in small ruminants and also sometimes large ruminants due to which we lose our animals. The recommended surgical intervention to ensure their survival is tube cystostomy. So existing catheter was having many drawbacks since because it was human catheter not customised as per veterinary needs, hence an appropriate sized catheter exclusively in animals, inclusive of all the desired merits was customised and been employed in several cases with success. The modified urinary catheter was developed for large and small animals to save their lives. It was also granted a patent by Indian Patent office.
The document will present an analysis of prevailing research trajectories, offering insights into current advancements and highlighting the most auspicious trends for the future refinement of biomaterials in the context of tissue engineering applications.A successful application of a tissue engineering product might be one that relieves pain or increases the patient’s mobility and life quality even if the full regeneration of the tissue failed.
The tendon grafts, bone grafts, bone granules and chips, collagen gel, composite grafts, injectable collagen-gel, collagen powder, bioinspired composite gel, bioactive bone grafts incorporated with growth factors and stem cells all these were developed and has been incorporated in several hundreds of clinical cases with high rate of success.
So we are ready with a potential solution of regeneration in animals with the latest innovated technologies under my leadership and supervision and conceptualization of thoughts. The biomaterials raised in the present innovative steps were universal matrices i.e. could be employed in all the species cattle, buffalo, dog, goat, horse, rabbits and guinea pigs etc. Even was applied in wild animals monkeys, tiger, bear and deer with great success.These advances are not available in human surgery also, so its a pride for the veterinarians to have such latest techniques.
We can not only treat our animals with great success but also have laid a potential technology for human use, we can be the sole manufacturers globally and make the dream of ATMNIRBHAR BHARAT come true.
