Collagen-based implants reinforced by chitin fibres in a goat shank bone defect model

Tissue engineering is an increasingly popular method for repairing bone defects. However, repair of bone defects over 30 mm using tissue-engineering methods is a difficult clinical problem. In this study, we used a goat shank model to evaluate the bone-regenerating efficacy of a novel nano-hydroxyapatite/collagen/PLLA (nHACP) composite reinforced by chitin fibres. Forty adult male goats with 40 mm defects in shank at the same anatomic site were...