Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 5

Downloaded from rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.

org on May 16, 2012

Biomaterials research in China


Xingdong Zhang and Fuzhai Cui Interface Focus 2012 2, 255-258 first published online 11 April 2012 doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2012.0019

References Subject collections Email alerting service

This article cites 23 articles

http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/3/255.full.html#ref-list-1 Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections biomaterials (17 articles)
Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article - sign up in the box at the top right-hand corner of the article or click here

To subscribe to Interface Focus go to: http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/subscriptions

Downloaded from rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org on May 16, 2012

Interface Focus (2012) 2, 255258 doi:10.1098/rsfs.2012.0019 Published online 11 April 2012

INTRODUCTION

Biomaterials research in China


Xingdong Zhang1,* and Fuzhai Cui2,*
National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China 2 Institute of Regenerative Medical Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China It is a great honour that Interface Focus will publish a special issue to introduce the progress and achievements of biomaterials research in China. We feel it is a good opportunity to present the progress in Chinese biomaterials research to the international biomaterials community, and to promote the collaboration between international and Chinese biomaterials scientists. Keywords: biomaterials; research; China
1

1. INTRODUCTION Although in ancient China, gold teeth and wood tools for bone repair have been recorded in literature, studies of contemporary biomaterials did not start until the beginning of the 1970s in China. Since then Chinese biomaterials research has developed rapidly: Recently, Chinese biomaterials science and engineering have stepped into international stage successfully (A. F. Von Recum, Forum, SFB, 1997). At present, China has become one of the largest biomaterials research countries in the world [1]. There are close to 5000 professionals working in more than 300 institutes all over China, including universities, national and local research centres, company technology centres, hospitals, etc., from which the Chinese biomaterial R&D system is formed. These institutes are mainly concentrated in the metropolitan cities in China, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xian, Chongqing, etc. To date, close to 200 universities and colleges across the country have set up biomaterials programmes and more than 2000 undergraduate students are enrolled on biomaterials programmes in China. The total funding allocated for the R&D of biomaterials has increased multiple times from 1990 to 2010, which mainly comes from central government, local government, companies and private investment. The Chinese Society for Biomaterials had been formed previously and is a founder of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). In 2010, there were about 1400 Chinese registered delegates of the National Biomaterials Congress of China. All these reect the fact that R&D of biomaterials in China is well established.
*Authors for correspondence (zhangxd@scu.edu.cn; cuifz@mail.tsinghua. edu.cn). One contribution of 11 to a Theme Issue Biomaterials research in China. Received 16 March 2012 Accepted 16 March 2012

The statistic results of published theses in 44 international journals on Biomedical Engineering (BME) from 1999 to 2008 show that China only accounted for 4 per cent of the total and is ranked in the seventh place. But the compound growth rate of published theses with a Chinese rst author reached 40.5 per cent of the total theses and is ranked at the top. Chinese theses on materials and biomaterials published in the 44 journals are in third place. For 2010, Chinese theses published in three major international biomaterials journals were: 20 per cent of the total in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 25 per cent in Biomaterials, and in rst place in the Journal of Biomedical Material Research: Part A and Part B. From 2003 to 2007, Chinese scientists have lodged 3431 patents in the eld of medical devices, accounting for 3.4 per cent of the global total, ranking fth out of 15 countries or regions. The compound growth rate of Chinese patents reached 36.1 per cent and is ranked rst. The increased number of published Chinese theses and patents shows that the study of biomaterials science and engineering are very active in China. The progress of Chinese biomaterials research has been further recognized by the international biomaterials community through the hosting of the 2012 9th World Biomaterials Congress in Chengdu, China. Some major research areas and progress of Chinese biomaterials are summarized below.

2. TISSUE-INDUCING BIOMATERIALS We discovered and demonstrated that bone formation or regeneration could be induced by lifeless biomaterials themselves, other than by the addition of any living cells or growth factors, and proposed the osteoinductive mechanism of biomaterials. Based on this discovery, a new articial bone material with osteoinduction was developed and obtained State Food and Drug Administration of China (SFDA) approval for access to the 255

This journal is q 2012 The Royal Society

Downloaded from rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org on May 16, 2012

256

Introduction. Biomaterials research in China

X. Zhang and F. Cui 5. MOLECULAR BIOCOMPATIBILITY Molecular biocompatibility requires understanding of the biocompatibility of biomaterials at the molecular level, thus directing the design of a biomaterial with an expected biological response [17 19]. At this moment, the studies are focused on understanding the inuence of a materials properties (signals) on cell behaviour, especially how materials can generate signals to be transmitted to the cells, and thus to regulate gene expression in cells and pathways of cell differentiation. Preliminarily studies have shown that some mechanical, electrical and geometrical properties, porous structure and surface patterning may affect the expression of genes and regulate cell behaviour.

Chinese market. After that, an articular cartilage induced by a collagen-based hydrogel was also demonstrated. At present, the studies of tissue-inducing biomaterials have been extended to non-osseous tissue-inducing materials [2 4].

3. SURFACE AND SURFACE MODIFICATION These studies have focused on anticoagulation and antibiosis of biomaterials [5], and surface bioactivation. 3.1. Surface modication for improvement of anticoagulation A viewpoint was raised that blood coagulation on the surface of biomaterials can be prevented. The key is to maintain the conformation stability of the core proteins in the coagulation system, so that the electrons on the active site of the protein molecular chain could not be transferred to the surface of implanted materials, thus preventing activation of the coagulation system. According to the viewpoint, two kinds of anticoagulative surfaces have been developed. 3.1.1. Anticoagulative metal surface The TiO2 lm on the Ti surface was modied into a Nsemiconductor using an ion immersion implantation technique, thus the electrons in the protein molecular chain could not be transferred onto the Ti surfaces. A comprehensive study showed that the Ti-modied surface has an excellent anticoagulation capability [6,7]. 3.1.2. Anticoagulative polymer surface By grafting amphoteric groups on a polymeric surface, an articial blood vessel with excellent anticoagulation function was developed and is currently in clinical trial [8]. 3.2. Surface bioactivation A commercial plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite coating has been developed and has been applied to articial joint and dental implants since the end of 1980s in China [9]. The Ca-P thin lm coating by bio-mineralization is being studied for articial joints, percutaneous devices and porous metal implants with bioactive surfaces [10].

6. BIOMINERALIZATION A mineralized collagen bril with structures like natural bone has been synthesized in vitro by the scientists from Tsinghua University. The nano-hydroxyapatite grains presented a periodic and oriented arrangement on the collagen brils. The study provided important evidence for the studies of the origin of natural bone and bone materials [20]. Besides drug and gene-delivery systems [2123], molecular imaging probes, biodegradable medical metals [24], bio-chip, etc. are other hot spots of biomaterial studies in China. At the same time, the size of the Chinese biomaterials industry is increasing rapidly. The compound growth rate of the Chinese biomaterials market reached about 30 per cent between 2008 and 2010. The Chinese biomaterials market is worth US$9.85 billion. It is estimated that the Chinese biomaterials market will reach US$36.5 billion by 2015. The major driving forces to promote this growth are the discussed below. First, the huge population and the big market, particularly the ageing population, promotes the increasing demand for medical devices in China. The population aged 65 constitutes 8.3 per cent of total Chinese population and will increase to 32 per cent in 2020. Second, the implementation of Chinas healthcare reform designed to improve healthcare access: by 2011, 90 per cent of the rural and urban population is expected to have basic insurance coverage through increased government subsidies. This will increase the demands for medical devices dramatically. The third driving force is the rapid economic growth. In China, GDP growth has remained at about 9 per cent every year for the past 20 years. Healthcare expenditure also increases with rapid economic growth. The average healthcare expenditures of a middle-income family have increased 60 per cent in urban areas and 91 per cent in rural areas. All of these factors will be the underlying impetuses to promote the vigorous development of biomaterials in China. But the R&D level of Chinese biomaterials has to be further enhanced as mentioned above. The number of theses published in 44 BME journals by Chinese scientists was only 4 per cent of the global total, far below the USA (28.6%) and the UK (7%). The average citation

4. TISSUE ENGINEERING Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering are playing leading roles in the progress of biomaterials science and engineering. In China, studies of tissue engineering started at the end of 1990. Now, a batch of tissue engineering products for connective tissues is in clinical trials. Eight industry standards for tissueengineered products have been issued by SFDA and the tissue-engineered skin has obtained approval from SFDA and is used in clinic [11 16].
Interface Focus (2012)

Downloaded from rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org on May 16, 2012

Introduction. Biomaterials research in China per Chinese paper is 7.28, lower than that of American authors (11.45). Between 2003 and 2007, for published worldwide patents, the average number of citations per patent was only 0.07 for Chinese authors, much lower than the global average number of citations of 0.4, and is ranked 14. However, China was listed at fth in the world for lodging patents and the rate of increase was at 36.1 per cent. China still has a long way to go to improve the level of biomaterials R&D. In particular the industrial scale and technological level have to be expanded and increased. The Chinese industrial scale of biomaterials is pretty small, and only accounts for less than 6 per cent of the worldwide biomaterials market. The technological structure of products is behind that of developed countries. About 80 per cent of the high-tech products rely on import. This situation cannot meet the basic demand to ensure healthcare for the Chinese people. At the same time, the capability of technology transfer is not efcient. Most of R&D achievements remain in laboratories and cannot be transformed to engineered technology or products. Still, there is a long way to go for Chinese biomaterials R&D compared to that of developed countries, regardless of its high speed of development. In China, biomaterials research receives a great deal of attention and is listed as a priority science and technology area in the National Development Plan, which could change the current situation and meet all the basic demands of Chinese healthcare. A 10 year special development plan for biomaterials is being introduced. Our goals are to improve the quality and expand the production scale for general biomaterial and medical implants, and to enhance the capability of science and technological innovation, which could decrease the dependence on imported high-tech products. We hope the Chinese market of biomaterials and medical implants could at least reach US$36.5 billion by 2015.
We would like to express our appreciation to Prof. William Boneld, the rst editor of Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Prof. Denis Noble, editor of Interface Focus, and the Editorial Ofce.

X. Zhang and F. Cui

257

10

11

12

13

14

REFERENCES
1 Zhang, X. & Wang, B. 2009 The growing up of Chinese biomaterials science and industry. Adv. Mater. Industry, 10, 9295. 2 Zhang, X. 2000 Calcium phosphate biomaterials with intrinsic osteoinductivity. Notebook: workshop no. 1. The 6th World Biomaterials Congress, Hawaii, USA. Mount Laurel, NJ: Society for Biomaterials. 3 Yuan, H., Kurashina, K., de Bruijn, J. D., Li, Y., de Groot, K. & Zhang, Z. 1999 A preliminary study on osteoinduction of two kinds of Calcium Phosphate Ceramics. Biomaterials 20, 17991806. (doi:10.1016/S0142-9612 (99)00075-7) 4 Zhang, C., Wang, J. X. & Zhang, X. D. 2000 Osteoinductivity and biomechanics of a porous ceramic with autogenic periosteum. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. 52, 354359. (doi:10.1002/1097-4636(200011)52:2,354::AIDJBM15.3.0.CO;2-D) 5 Feng, Q. L., Wu, J., Chen, G. Q. & Cui, F. Z. 2000 A mechanistic study of the antibacterial effect of silver 15

16

17

18

ions on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. 52, 662668. (doi:10.1002/10974636(20001215)52:4,662::AID-JBM10.3.0.CO;2-3) Weng, Y., Song, Q., Zhou, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, J., Chen, J., Leng, Y., Li, S. & Huang, N. 2011 Immobilization of selenocystamine on TiO2 surfaces for in situ catalytic generation of nitric oxide and potential application in intravascular stents. Biomaterials 32, 12531263. (doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials. 2010.10.039) Li, G. C., Yang, P. & Qin, W. 2011 The effect of coimmobilizing heparin and bronectin on titanium on hemocompatibility and endothelialization. Biomaterials 32, 4691 4703. (doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.03.025) Yuan, Y. L., Ai, F., Zang, X. P., Zhuang, W., Shen, J. & Lin, S. C. 2004 Polyurethane vascular catheter surface grafted with zwitterionic sulfobetaine monomer activated by ozone. Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces 35, 15. (doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2004.01.005) Gao, L., Feng, B., Wang, J., Lu, X., Liu, D., Qu, S. & Weng, J. 2009 Micro/nanostructural porous surface on titanium and bioactivity. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. Part B Appl. Biomater. 89B, 335341. (doi:10.1002/jbm.b.31221) Xu, L. P., Pan, F., Yu, G. N. & Yan, K. 2009 In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the surface bioactivity of a calcium phosphate coated magnesium alloy. Biomaterials 30, 15121523. (doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials. 2008.12.001) Zhao, J., Shen, G. & Liu, C. S. 2012 Enhanced healing of rat calvarial defects with sulfated chitosan-coated calciumdecient hydroxyapatite/bone morphogenetic protein 2 scaffolds. Tissue Eng. Part A 18, 185197. (doi:10.1089/ ten.tea.2011.0297) Zhang, M., Wang, Z. X. & Wang, Z. F. 2011 Immobilization of anti-CD31 antibody on electrospun poly(epsiloncaprolactone) scaffolds through hydrophobins for specic adhesion of endothelial cells. Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces 85, 3239. (doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2010.10.042) Wang, H. A., Hansen, M. B., Lowik, D. W. P. M., van Hest, J. C. M., Li, Y. B., Jansen, J. A. & Leeuwenburgh, S. C. G. 2011 Oppositely charged gelatin nanospheres as building blocks for injectable and biodegradable gels. Adv. Mater. 23, H119H124. (doi:10.1002/adma. 201003908) Chau, Y., Luo, Y., Cheung, A. C. Y., Nagai, Y., Zhang, S. G., Kobler, J. B., Zeitels, S. M. & Langer, R. 2008 Incorporation of a matrix metalloproteinase-sensitive substrate into self-assembling peptidesa model for biofunctional scaffolds. Biomaterials 29, 17131719. (doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2007.11.046) Guo, X. M. et al. 2004 Repair of osteochondral defects with autologous chondrocytes seeded onto bioceramic scaffold in sheep. Tissue Eng. 10, 18301840. (doi:10. 1089/ten.2004.10.1830) Liu, G. P., Li, Z., Zhang, W. J., Lei, C., Liu, W. & Cao, Y. L. 2008 Repair of goat tibial defects with bone marrow stromal cells and ss-tricalcium phosphate. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 19, 23672376. (doi:10.1007/s10856-007-3348-3) Qu, S. X., Guo, X., Weng, J., Cheng, J. C., Feng, B., Yeung, H. Y. & Zhang, X. D. 2004 Evaluation of the expression of collagen type in porous calcium phosphate ceramics implanted in an extra-osseous site. Biomaterials 25, 659667. (doi:10.1016/S0142-9612(03)00577-5) Wang, C. Y., Duan, Y. R., Markovic, B., Barbara, J., Howlett, C. R., Zhang, X. & Zreiqat, H. 2004 Phenotypic expression of bone-related genes in osteoblasts grown on calcium phosphate ceramics with different phase compositions. Biomaterials 25, 2507 2514. (doi:10.1016/j. biomaterials.2003.09.035)

Interface Focus (2012)

Downloaded from rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org on May 16, 2012

258

Introduction. Biomaterials research in China

X. Zhang and F. Cui


22 Mo, L. H., Yang, Z. Y., Zhang, A. F. & Li, X. G. 2010 The repair of the injured adult rat hippocampus with NT-3chitosan carriers. Biomaterials 31, 2184 2192. (doi:10. 1016/j.biomaterials.2009.11.078) 23 Liao, J. & Zhuo, R. X. 1991 Synthesis and antitumoractivity of polymer drugs containing 5-uorouracil in the main chain. Polymer J. 23, 12691272. (doi:10.1295/ polymj.23.1269) 24 Liu, B. & Zheng, Y. F. 2011 Effects of alloying elements (Mn, Co, Al, W, Sn, B, C and S) on biodegradability and in vitro biocompatibility of pure iron. Acta Biomater. 7, 1407 1420. (doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2010.11.001)

19 Pan, Z., Yan, C., Peng, R. & Ding, J. D. 2012 Control of cell nucleus shapes via micropillar patterns. Biomaterials 33, 1730 1735. (doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials. 2011.11.023) 20 Cui, F. Z., Li, Y. & Ge, J. 2007 Self-assembly of mineralized collagen composites. Mater. Sci. Eng. R Reports 57, 1 27. (doi:10.1016/j.mser.2007.04.001) 21 Luo, K., Li, C., Wang, G., Nie, Y., He, B., Wu, Y. & Gu, Z. 2011 Peptide dendrimers as efcient and biocompatible gene delivery vectors: synthesis and in vitro characterization. J. Control. Release 155, 77 87. (doi:10.1016/j. jconrel.2010.10.006)

Interface Focus (2012)

Вам также может понравиться