UNAIR NEWS – One of the research studies comes from Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), Alfian Pramudita Putra, S.T., M.Si conducted research on “The Role of Bone Filler as an Introductory Drug for Osteoporosis Cases”.
Alfian explained the bone filler is commonly used to increase bone density or osteoporosis sufferers (bone damage due to decreased bone density, ed). Several materials can be used as bone fillers, and some of them are hydroxyapatite.
“Unfortunately, this material (hydroxyapatite, ed) is quite fragile and requires other material as a mixture to compensate for these weaknesses,” Alfian said.
One of the materials that can be used as a mixture is gelatin, and it will increase the adhesion, migration, and mineralization of osteoblasts (parts of the bone play a role in forming bone cells.
The use of hydroxyapatite and gelatin as bone fillers is still considered not very useful because of its solid form. For this reason, a bone filler with injectable bone substitute (IBS) was developed.
“By using IBS, bone fillers can adjust to bone damage due to osteoporosis which certainly causes irregular bone damage,” he continued.
Besides, other functions of IBS is delivering the drug. In the case of osteoporosis, the drug that is delivered is alendronate. Based on this, Alfian and his team conducted a study about synthesize and characterize the suspension of hydroxyapatite-gelati composites by adding alendronate as IBS.
“Hydroxyapatite and gelatin-based IBS in the ratio of 45:55 and alendronate can support its application as a bone filler that can deliver drugs for osteoporosis,” he concluded.
Author: Galuh Mega Kurnia
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
Reference : Putra, A. P., Hikmawati, D. & Budiatin, A. S., 2019. Injectable Bone Substitute of Hydroxyapatite-Gelatin Composite with Alendronate for Bone Defect Due to Osteoporosis. Journal of International Dental and Medical Research, 12(2), pp. 813-818.
Link : https://search.proquest.com/docview/2284455917?pq-origsite=gscholar
