Personale docente

Stefano Guizzardi was born in Bologna on April 1st 1959. In 1977 he completed his scientific secondary school cycle. He graduated cum laude in Medicine at Bologna University on November 13th 1983, discussing the thesis "A new approach to the study of the varicose disease: morpho-functional correlations".
Since 1979 until graduation he attended the Electron microscopy section of the Normal Human Anatomy Institute at Bologna
University, directed by Prof. Alessandro Ruggeri.
In 1984 he was awarded an annual study grant for a research on "Pharmacokynetics and tissue-organ-distribution of exogenous
GAG in experimental animals".
In may 1984 he was awarded the prize "Venosmine" for the year most original report in phlebology entitled "Correlations between ultrastructure and functional reactivity of the varicose venous wall".
In 1985-86 he was admitted to the triennial PhD course in "Biomedical Technologies" that he completed in 1989 discussing the experimental thesis "Osteoinductive properties of heterologous, demineralised, bone matrix implants in the form of granules". In April 1990 he was nominated researcher at the former Institute of Histology and general Embryology of Parma University, directed by Prof. Renato Scandroglio.
Since then he has carried out research and teaching activity to medicine students in this structure. In 2000 he was among the founder members of the Department of Experimental Medicine, where he is presently working in the Histology and Embryology section.
In 2004 he was nominated Associate professor of Histology.
His scientific activity began during the pre-graduation internship with studies on the connective tissues and particularly on the structure of the collagen fibres.
He attended the "Centre de microscopie Electronique at Claude Bernard university in Lion (directed by Prof. Robert Garrone), where he contributed to the improvement of immunohistochemical techniques applied to electron microscopy for the ultrastructural evaluation of collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins such as laminin and fibronectin.
The same techniques were exploited to investigate the pharmacokinetics and metabolic fate of fluoresceinated compounds derived by exogenous GAG in animal models both by intravenous and oral administration. Moreover he carried out investigations both on human and animal tendons to assess the distribution of the different types of collagen and the composition of tendon sheats.
In cooperation with the Laboratory of Biology and cell pathology at the Sao Paulo University (Brasil) and with the Department of Biochemistry at Pavia University (Italy) he studied the structure of the collagen neo-fibril and its assembling modalities by techniques of reconstitution of collagen collected from tendon, skin and cornea.
Since PhD years and up to day he focused his studies on biomaterials for odontoiatric and orthopaedic purposes.
As concernes the recent scientific activity, he tested the biocompatibility, toxicity and osteoinductive attitude of many compounds both in vivo and in vitro. In particular he investigated tissue reactivity and changes occurring at the interface between biomaterials (both ceramic and metal) and bone or soft-tissues. These tests are carried out in cooperation with the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna.
In particular he has been directed his researches towards different lines:
1) Analysis of the surface of bone implants. In this research field he has evaluated the performances of surfaces with different topography to stimulate the in vitro ingrowth and differentiation of osteoblasts and fibroblasts. These researches have been also carried on with time-lapse confocal microscopy. Using this technique together with biochemical analysis, the mechanisms of bone matrix deposition and reabsorption are investigated in order to assess biocompatibility and reliability of new materials.
2) Analysis of the ostoeoinductivity and osteoconductivity of natural and synthetic apatite. As regard this research field, he has developed a project with the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics - Biomaterials Group (ISTEC-CNR) Faenza on the toxicity and osteostimulating properties of Si/Mg substituted apatites.
3) Analysis ot d the osteostimulating effect of Platelet Derived Growth Factors
4) Analysis of the effect on proliferation and differentiation of mesenchymal cells of esogenous nucleotides and nucleosides. In particular he has investigated the role of the P2 receprors.
In 2007 he took part as independent unity to a PRIN project titled Influence of the implant surface and of the microenviroment on the firs phase of osteointegration process. An “in vitro” study on mesenchimal cells. Coordinator Prof. Alessandro Ruggeri.