Biodegradable gel shows promise for cartilage regeneration
A gel that combines both stiffness and toughness is a step forward in the bid to create biodegradable implants for joint injuries, according to new UBC research.
Now, new research by Canadian and Chinese scientists published today in Nature outlines a method to marry these properties in a biodegradable gel. “Cartilage is tricky,” says senior author Dr. Hongbin Li, a professor in the UBC department of chemistry. “Articular cartilage repair represents an important medical challenge because naturally speaking, it doesn’t repair itself.
In the study, Dr. Li and his team developed a new approach to stiffen a protein gel without sacrificing toughness, by physically tangling together the chains of a particular protein that made up the gel’s network. “These entangled chains can move, which allows energy, for instance, the impact from jumping, to be dissipated, just like shock absorbers in bikes. In addition, we combined this with an existing method of folding and unfolding proteins, which also allows for energy dissipation,” says first author Dr. Linglan Fu, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at UBC’s department of chemistry.
“This just shows how complex this area of research is, and the need to take into account the many different physical and biochemical cues and factors when designing these scaffolds,” says co-author Dr. Qing Jiang, a professor and surgeon at Nanjing University.
Further animal testing is needed and the research is still premature for human trials.
https://news.ubc.ca/2023/06/21/biodegradable-gel-shows-promise-for-cartilage-regeneration/
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