Dr Jason Mansell, Lecturer in Bone Biology in the Department of Oral and Dental Science, has been awarded £57,000 from the International Team for Implantology (Switzerland) for work on titanium bone implants.

Each year the NHS spends millions of pounds correcting failed titanium implants. The overwhelming majority of these corrective procedures (more than 95 per cent) are due to the fact that there is a lack of healthy, mechanically sound bone tissue at the implant site, resulting in the implant coming loose.

Given the financial pressure this exerts on the NHS and the stress it puts on patients, there has been a concerted global effort to find ways to improve the life of implants. One way of producing superior implants is to coat them with agents that stimulate mechanically sound tissue by bone-forming osteoblast cells. Unfortunately, most of the agents that have potential in achieving this are too large, too unstable, or, more importantly, too costly for the NHS to consider an option for future implant design.

For bone to be mechanically competent, the osteoblasts need exposure to vitamin D in combination with specific growth factors. Dr Mansell has discovered two of the three agents known to trigger the appropriate osteoblast response conducive to competent bone-tissue formation. One of these agents is a lipid, lysophosphatidic acid, known as LPA, which is found in natural abundance in human tissues and body fluids. The small size, stability, abundance and low cost of LPA make it a particularly attractive candidate for coating titanium.