Magic "glue"
Scientists have developed a hydrogel that will help to assemble bones into pieces
The substance replaces the missing bone fragment, and eventually turns into new bone tissue.
If fractures are able to heal themselves, then more complex bone injuries, where large areas of bone tissue are missing, often do not recover at all. As a result, patients need a bone transplant from another part of the body. But it seems that this is in the past, scientists have developed a substance capable of filling voids in bones, writes EurekAlert.
A group of scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Tel Aviv have developed a special hydrogel that is not only able to replace the lost part of the bone, but also eventually turn into bone tissue.
Scientists called their creation an immunomodulating hydrogel based on fibrous hyaluronic acid-Fmoc-diphenylalanine, abbreviated as FmocFF/HA. According to the creators, their "glue" essentially mimics the physical and chemical properties of the extracellular matrix in bone tissue.
The extracellular matrix is the supporting material surrounding the cells. Its properties vary depending on the type of biological tissue around it and of which it is a part. For example, in bone tissue, the extracellular matrix will have a rigid, fibrous structure.
The researchers note that their hydrogel is not just able to replace a bone fragment: over time, cells from neighboring bone tissue can migrate to FmocFF/HA and multiply. Eventually, the gel will be completely replaced by bone tissue.
Scientists have already tested the properties of the hydrogel in the laboratory. In total, two dozen rats took part in the experiment. The researchers filled 5-millimeter holes in the upper part of the rats' skulls with hydrogel. Such injuries could not have healed without outside intervention.
For two months, the scientists observed rats injected with hydrogel and a control group without it. After a while, scientists discovered that FmocFF/HA not only completely restored the structure of the bone tissue of the rat skull, the bones also restored their original thickness and formed new blood vessels. At the same time, no changes were observed in rats that were not injected with hydrogel.
Scientists believe that their new hydrogel will make life much easier for doctors and patients in the future — FmocFF/HA will help restore bone tissue in a matter of months.
The article Halperin-Sternfeld et al. Immunomodulatory fibrous hyaluronic acid-Fmoc-diphenylalanine-based hydrogel induces bone regeneration is published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology – VM.
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