@phdthesis{Ruecker2019,
  author    = {R{\"u}cker, Christoph},
  title     = {Development of a prevascularized bone implant},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-17886},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-178869},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {The skeletal system forms the mechanical structure of the body and consists of bone, which is hard connective tissue. The tasks the skeleton and bones take over are of mechanical, metabolic and synthetic nature. Lastly, bones enable the production of blood cells by housing the bone marrow. Bone has a scarless self-healing capacity to a certain degree. Injuries exceeding this capacity caused by trauma, surgical removal of infected or tumoral bone or as a result from treatment-related osteonecrosis, will not heal. Critical size bone defects that will not heal by themselves are still object of comprehensive clinical investigation. The conventional treatments often result in therapies including burdening methods as for example the harvesting of autologous bone material. The aim of this thesis was the creation of a prevascularized bone implant employing minimally invasive methods in order to minimize inconvenience for patients and surgical site morbidity. The basis for the implant was a decellularized, naturally derived vascular scaffold (BioVaSc-TERM®) providing functional vessel structures after reseeding with autologous endothelial cells. The bone compartment was built by the combination of the aforementioned scaffold with synthetic β-tricalcium phosphate. In vitro culture for tissue maturation was performed using bioreactor technology before the testing of the regenerative potential of the implant in large animal experiments in sheep. A tibia defect was treated without the anastomosis of the implant's innate vasculature to the host's circulatory system and in a second study, with anastomosis of the vessel system in a mandibular defect. While the non-anastomosed implant revealed a mostly osteoconductive effect, the implants that were anastomosed achieved formation of bony islands evenly distributed over the defect. In order to prepare preconditions for a rapid approval of an implant making use of this vascularization strategy, the manufacturing of the BioVaSc-TERM® as vascularizing scaffold was adjusted to GMP requirements.},
  subject      = {Tissue Engineering},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{GroeberEngelhardtLangeetal.2016,
  author    = {Groeber, Florian and Engelhardt, Lisa and Lange, Julia and Kurdyn, Szymon and Schmid, Freia F. and R{\"u}cker, Christoph and Mielke, Stephan and Walles, Heike and Hansmann, Jan},
  title     = {A First Vascularized Skin Equivalent as an Alternative to Animal Experimentation},
  series = {ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation},
  volume    = {33},
  journal   = {ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation},
  number    = {4},
  doi       = {10.14573/altex.1604041},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-164438},
  pages     = {415-422},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Tissue-engineered skin equivalents mimic key aspects of the human skin, and can thus be employed as wound coverage for large skin defects or as in vitro test systems as an alternative to animal models. However, current skin equivalents lack a functional vasculature limiting clinical and research applications. This study demonstrates the generation of a vascularized skin equivalent with a perfused vascular network by combining a biological vascularized scaffold (BioVaSc) based on a decellularized segment of a porcine jejunum and a tailored bioreactor system. Briefly, the BioVaSc was seeded with human fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and human microvascular endothelial cells. After 14 days at the air-liquid interface, hematoxylin \& eosin and immunohistological staining revealed a specific histological architecture representative of the human dermis and epidermis including a papillary-like architecture at the dermal-epidermal-junction. The formation of the skin barrier was measured non-destructively using impedance spectroscopy. Additionally, endothelial cells lined the walls of the formed vessels that could be perfused with a physiological volume flow. Due to the presence of a complex in-vivo-like vasculature, the here shown skin equivalent has the potential for skin grafting and represents a sophisticated in vitro model for dermatological research.},
  language  = {en}
}