Bone Healing
Katharina Schmidt-Bleek
Bone is an interesting tissue from the researchers view as it is able to regenerate after injury. However, even today and with an adequate treatment 5-20% of all fractured patients experience a delayed or non-union.
Research Focus
Bone is much more than a structural tissue. It is a living, dynamic organ that continuously communicates with the immune system, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and the body's metabolic environment. Understanding these interactions is at the heart of our research.
Our group investigates how the immune system influences bone regeneration and why successful bone healing sometimes fails. While inflammation is essential for initiating repair after injury, an imbalanced immune response can impair regeneration and contribute to delayed healing or non-union. We are particularly interested in the role of the adaptive immune system, aiming to understand how different immune cell populations coordinate bone repair and how their communication with bone-forming cells determines regenerative outcomes.
A major goal of our research is to identify strategies to modulate immune responses in order to promote bone healing. By uncovering the molecular mechanisms that govern the interaction between immune cells and skeletal cells, we seek to develop novel therapeutic concepts that improve regeneration in patients with compromised healing.
Our work is rooted in fundamental (basic) research, where we investigate the biological mechanisms underlying bone regeneration. At the same time, we are committed to translating these discoveries towards clinical application. Whenever appropriate, we incorporate analyses of patient-derived samples to validate experimental findings and ensure that our research addresses clinically relevant questions. This close connection between experimental and human studies helps bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and future therapeutic approaches.
Our investigations are built upon extensive expertise in the biology of bone healing under both physiological and clinically challenging conditions. We study how factors such as advanced age, obesity, diabetes, and chronic inflammation alter the regenerative process and why these conditions increase the risk of impaired bone healing.
Increasingly, we view bone regeneration not as an isolated event but as part of a complex, interconnected biological network. Our research therefore extends beyond the skeleton itself to explore how bone communicates with other organ systems. Current projects investigate the role of the lymphatic system in resolving inflammation and supporting regeneration, as well as the influence of the metabolic environment, with a particular focus on bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and its contribution to skeletal repair.
By integrating immunology, skeletal biology, metabolism, and regenerative medicine, we aim to generate new knowledge that will ultimately lead to innovative therapies for patients suffering from impaired bone healing.