The most durable bio glue
Chinese scientists have created a gel that can be used to seal the heart
Biochemists from China and the United States have created a special gel composition that allows you to instantly seal any damaged vessels and even cuts on the heart in half a minute. The first results of its tests were presented in the journal Nature Communications (Hong et al., A strongly adhesive hemostatic hydrogel for the repair of arterial and heart bleeds).
"No other technique used in clinical practice today is capable of stopping bleeding in a still beating heart so quickly and effectively. When we sealed the pigs' hearts and dissected them two weeks later, we did not find any "leaks" of gel and traces of serious inflammation," says Hongwei Ouyang from Zhejiang University (China).
One of the main problems for surgeons in the operating rooms and for the military on the battlefield remains that all existing methods of stopping bleeding and eliminating wounds have great disadvantages. For example, "stitching" a wound with surgical threads requires a lot of time, and ordinary super glue, the most convenient and reliable means for gluing wounds, is very toxic and fragile.
In recent years, scientists have pinned great hopes on synthetic analogues of shell glue, with which they are attached to rocks. This substance works well under water, but its strength was too small to glue torn cartilage, ligaments, muscles and other organs.
On average, "clam glue" and other adhesive compounds that are safe for the body hold glued surfaces about 80-100 times worse than cartilage and ligaments attach to bones. This makes them absolutely useless for operations, as they will constantly open or break when treating large wounds.
Ouyang and his colleagues solved this problem by studying the physical and chemical properties of the molecules that make up the basis of human connective tissue. As a rule, it consists of two types of fibers – proteins-collagens and carbohydrates-glycosaminglycans, as well as a large amount of water.
A similar structure, as scientists have suggested, can be created using various gelatin derivatives that can turn into polymer filaments when irradiated with ultraviolet light. By mixing them in a certain proportion with hyaluronic acid, butanamide and some other substances, Chinese researchers have obtained a gel-like material capable of withstanding hundreds of times higher pressure than ordinary superglue.
Scientists tested his work on the hearts of several pigs, in which they cut a hole with a diameter of 6 millimeters. As it turned out, their gel adheres very well to the surface of the heart muscle, is fixed in it in just 20 seconds after the start of irradiation and does not lose strength for several weeks until it gradually overgrows with new cells.
According to scientists, this gel is absolutely safe for the human body and animals and it can be used not only to repair the heart, arteries and other blood vessels, but also ordinary wounds. Interestingly, a similar material was recently created by biologists from Harvard, who used it to treat eye injuries.
Biochemists hope that their brainchild will quickly find a place in medical practice, given that gelatin and its synthetic analogues have long been recognized as safe for humans and other mammals.
The video is not for the faint of heart – VM.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru