A new radiopaque bone grafting material developed at BelSU

A dental practitioner and a postgraduate student of the BelSU Medical Institute majoring in surgical dentistry Alexandra Chueva has developed an osteoplastic material that does not require any radiopaque substances added. Besides, it accelerates bioresorption or its disappearance from an organism by metabolism, secretion, or excretion.

The project won the BelSU UMNIK grant competition that supports innovative projects. Mikhail Trubitsyn, PhD in Technical Sciences and Professor of the Department of General Chemistry of the BelSU Institute of Pharmacy, Chemistry and Biology, worked as the project’s scientific advisor.

The material developed under the winning project looks like white granules and is intended to replace bone tissue defects. The material derived from nanostructured hydroxyapatite, the synthesis method for which also had been developed under the supervision of Professor Trubitsyn.

According to him, the composition of hydroxyapatite is close to human and animal bone tissue and has the crystal chemical formula Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2. Alexandra was the first to obtain an effective osteoplastic material based on strontium-substituted nanostructured hydroxyapatite with an optimal coefficient of calcium substitution by strontium equal to 5.

‘Due to this ratio of replacement of calcium by strontium, the bone material becomes radiopaque enough for a material of this kind without adding any other radiopaque substances,’ explained Alexandra Chueva.

Mikhail Trubitsyn states that the ratio of calcium and strontium in strontium-substituted nanosized hydroxyapatite proposed in this development allows for obtaining hydroxyapatite crystals of a rounded shape, and almost uniform in size. The particles’ characteristics of size and volume are the key factor for the effectiveness of the processes of gradual resorption of calcium orthophosphates with the involvement of mineral components into the bone tissue formation.

The research, successfully completed by patenting of a new original development, was conducted in cooperation with VLADMIVA, JSC, one of the biggest industrial partners of the Belgorod University. On the partner’s side, the work was supervised by Andrey Buzov, PhD in Technical Sciences and the VLADMIVA technical director. As a result of the research works completed, research samples were obtained.

According to him, scientists and developers will have to do even more work and conduct a series of tests in order to include the patented material in the composition of a medical device. Usually, this process takes from three to five years.

‘The material proposed by the scientists of Belgorod State University, which we researched, is undoubtedly a promising development that can become part of an innovative medical device in the future,’ emphasized Andrey Buzov.