Combining
knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, scientists
from McGill University developed a biomaterial tough enough to repair
the heart, muscles, and vocal cords, representing a major advance in
regenerative medicine.
"People
recovering from heart damage often face a long and tricky journey.
Healing is challenging because of the constant movement tissues must
withstand as the heart beats. The same is true for vocal cords.
Until now there was no injectable material strong enough for the job,"
says Guangyu Bao, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at McGill University.
The
team, led by Professor Luc Mongeau and Assistant Professor Jianyu Li,
developed a new injectable hydrogel for wound repair. The hydrogel is a
type of biomaterial that provides room for cells to live and grow. Once
injected into the body, the biomaterial forms a stable, porous structure
allowing live cells to grow or pass through to repair the injured
organs.
"The
results are promising, and we hope that one day the new hydrogel will
be used as an implant to restore the voice of people with damaged vocal
cords, for example laryngeal cancer survivors," says Guangyu Bao.
Watch video: https://youtu.be/TVPuVUUyZUo
The vocal cord bioreactor simulates the biomechanics of vocal cords to test the hydrogels. Credit: Guangyu Bao
Putting it to the test
The
scientists tested the durability of their hydrogel in a machine they
developed to simulate the extreme biomechanics of human vocal cords.
Vibrating at 120 times a second for over 6 million cycles, the new
biomaterial remained intact while other standard hydrogels fractured
into pieces, unable to deal with the stress of the load.
"We
were incredibly excited to see it worked perfectly in our test. Before
our work, no injectable hydrogels possessed both high porosity and
toughness at the same time. To solve this issue, we introduced a
pore-forming polymer to our formula," says Guangyu Bao.
The innovation also opens new avenues for other applications like drug delivery, tissue engineering, and the creation of model tissues for drug screening, the scientists say. The team is even looking to use the hydrogel technology to create lungs to test COVID-19 drugs.
"Our
work highlights the synergy of materials science, mechanical
engineering and bioengineering in creating novel biomaterials with
unprecedented performance. We are looking forward to translating them
into the clinic", said Professor Jianyu Li, who holds the Canada
Research Chair in Biomaterials and Musculoskeletal Health.
The research was pubslished in Advanced Science.