Examination of human bone regeneration using a replacement model for animal research

Aims There is an unmet need to find new biomaterials that can augment bone regeneration at the fracture site. In parallel, novel strategies for bone tissue engineering need to be tested in the context of blood vessel supply as this is a critical requirement for bone formation 1 . This typically involves the use of in vivo research as a prediction tool for the potential clinical outcome. However, animal models are complex, raise ethical concerns and in some cases data derived are not comparable to human physiology 2 . Here we propose to culture human living bone tissue using the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane as an in ovo screening platform for novel biomaterials. To validate the outcome of the biological set-up (bone formation), we intend to use μCT technology to differentiate new bone using a combination of Otsu thresholding with a 3D co-registration tool.