Sputnik International reports that scientists from Russia’s Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) in collaboration with researchers at Ghent University in Belgium have developed a new material that can increase the rate of regeneration in bone, skin and nerve tissue. The results were published in the September issue of Applied Materials Today. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352940720302067?via%3Dihub
The study used “scaffolding” created with piezoelectric biodegradable polymers which were coated with special organic molecules fixed with a solution of diazonium salts. This matrix would be grafted to the implant (for example, a fractured bone), and the variation of the number of these groups and duration of treatment could be customized to be effective for any case.
“Roman Surmenev, head of TPU’s Material Physics and Composite Materials Research Centre, explained that a human body is able to restore bone tissue using electrical stimulation of cellular processes. ‘A [scaffold] implant with piezoelectric properties can speed up the repair of bone defects such as fractures or cracks. The method we have developed for changing the surface of implants – the use of a thin layer of special organic molecules — not only improves the wettability and response of cells, but also does not change the piezoelectric properties of the base material.’”
