Artificial bone

Article summary

Artificial bone refers to bone-like material created in a laboratory that can be used in bone grafts, to replace human bone that was lost due to severe fractures, disease, etc. Bone fracture, which is a complete or partial break in the bone, is a very common condition that has more than three million US cases per year. Human bones have the ability to regenerate themselves through the cycle of bone resorption and bone formation. The cell responsible for bone resorption is osteoclast, while the cell responsible for bone formation is osteoblast. However, if damage to bone is caused by a disease or severe injury, it becomes difficult for the body to repair itself. When the human body is unable to regenerate the lost bone tissue, surgeons replace the missing bone using autografts, allografts, and synthetic grafts (artificial bone). When comparing artificial bone to autograft and allograft, it is less invasive and more biocompatible since it avoids the risk of unknown viral infections. When designing implanted biomaterials, key criteria are biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, high porosity and biomechanics compatibility. Artificial bone was initially made of materials like metals and solid ceramics, which are strong enough to sustain the loading in bone.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.