{"id":285585,"date":"2021-05-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=285585"},"modified":"2021-05-06T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T09:00:00","slug":"snitches-get-glue-fixing-tissue-tears-with-hydrogel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/snitches-get-glue-fixing-tissue-tears-with-hydrogel\/","title":{"rendered":"Snitches get glue: fixing tissue tears with hydrogel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even with recent successes in medical innovations<\/a>, there are still some injuries with limited answers. Take having to repair a torn meniscus, for example. Though some of these tears heal on their own, often people must get a complicated surgery that involves sewing together the cartilage. A new hydrogel can glue these tears back together. It is being developed by scientists at the \u00c9cole polytechnique f\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne<\/a> (EPFL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meniscus tears are caused by a forceful turning of the knee and are common on the football field and the skill hill. They are also quite prevalent in the Netherlands – about 30,000 meniscus surgeries happen every year<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soft tissue tears are generally healed by a suture \u2013 or stitches that bind together the tear. Because they involve puncturing the tissue, sutures may result in further complications and incomplete healing. Repairing a meniscus tear, for instance, can lead to osteoarthritis. On the skin, a suture is relatively simple. With soft-tissue, it is like having to sew together a delicate piece of gelatin. A more visceral example is stitching one\u2019s eye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if stitches themselves are the limitation, why not another method \u2013 say, gluing the tissue together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this hydrogel, we can target more challenging applications for where there is no existing solution<\/p>Peyman Karami, Doctoral Assistant at the EPFL Biomechanical Orthopedics lab<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hydrogels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Enter hydrogels: medical adhesives meant to fuse tissue together in a way that is more \u2018natural\u2019. They work similarly to using an epoxy to reattach a wing to an airplane \u2013 rather than welding it on. Hydrogels provide a way of repairing soft tissue damage that is more seamless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, scientists have tried to develop a hydrogel that is strong, safe, and binds well with torn tissue. Researchers at the EPFL Laboratory of Biomechanical Orthopedics<\/a> (LBO) have developed a family of hydrogels that are strong, non-toxic, and are able to form within an affected area without any extra surface treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the holy grail of biomedical materials,\u201d says Dominique Pioletti<\/a>, Associate Professor and head of the LBO. \u201cIf you can use a glue instead of a suture \u2013 that would ease your life a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsically adhesive hydrogel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The hydrogel can contain biological cells and is photo-curable. This means that it starts in a liquid form and then uses visible light to solidify into a gel. It is injected into an affected area and forms to fill the space created by the tear. Think of how a liquid sealant might be used to fill a crack in leaky pipe. This works in a similar way. It then uses encapsulated cells to ‘naturally’ reattach and form new tissue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we call these \u2018intrinsically adhesive\u2019 hydrogels,\u201d explains Peyman Karami<\/a> a postdoc at Pioletti\u2019s lab who developed the gel during his PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dominique Pioletti (left) and Peyman Karami (right) – \u00a9 EPFL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since the hydrogel is mostly made of water, it can have drugs dissolved inside prior to it being injected into a laceration or tear. These stimulate the healing process, especially useful for soft tissues that do not heal on their own. It is also biodegradable and can be controlled to dissolve over the course of days or months \u2013 depending on the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karami developed the hydrogel as a means of healing more delicate parts of the body. For example, he has tested it on the heart, lung, kidney, and liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is more interesting is that, with this hydrogel, we can target more challenging applications for where there is no existing solution,\u201d says Karami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain tears in cartilage and eye tissue present such a challenge. To wit, his hydrogel can bring new hope to those who have damaged soft tissue in ways beyond conventional repairs. In order for that to happen, it would first need to be adopted in hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An evolution – not a revolution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to develop something that is successful, you need an evolution and not a revolution,\u201d says Pioletti. \u201cThat means it should be self-evident for the surgeon to use it, even if it is a new product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hydrogels have been developed to be easily adopted by surgeons in soft-tissue surgeries. Moreover, they may widen the competency threshold for these surgeries to those with less proficiency in these areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to be a very skilled surgeon for meniscus surgeries,\u201d explains Pioletti. \u201cThe demanding skill of suturing in a complicated situation would be made easier because you wouldn\u2019t need that skill anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For patients, this could mean lower wait times for surgeries such as these since more surgeons could administer the gel. However, to have something that is closer to a revolution, the two first need to prove that their hydrogel is not just faster and easier \u2013 but better <\/em>at repairing the tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years away<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Though Pioletti believes that on average the results from the hydrogel would be superior, more testing is needed.  Specifically, the next step is using the hydrogel on injured animals to see how they heal. They have already tested the hydrogel on the knees of goats. They found that within two days, the adhesive was strong enough for them to roam free in a barn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pioletti\u2019s lab has just received an Innosuisse grant to study potential orthopedic applications in association with surgeons at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). They hope to be able to launch their hydrogel on the market within the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about how tooth generation could soon be a reality.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even with recent successes in medical innovations, there are still some injuries with limited answers. Take having to repair a torn meniscus, for example. Though some of these tears heal on their own, often people must get a complicated surgery that involves sewing together the cartilage. A new hydrogel can glue these tears back together. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1932,"featured_media":523968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[60857,39636,60859,40524,60862],"location":[52892],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-285585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-dominique-pioletti","tag-epfl-en","tag-hydrogel","tag-orthopedics","tag-soft-tissue-repair","location-switzerland","article_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"EPFL researchers have developed a hydrogel that forms within a soft tissue tear or laceration and uses ultraviolet light to bind it together.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Alex Davidson","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/alex-davidson\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_4120-scaled-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["dominique pioletti<\/a>","EPFL<\/a>","Hydrogel<\/a>","orthopedics<\/a>","soft tissue repair<\/a>"],"unlinked":["dominique pioletti<\/span>","EPFL<\/span>","Hydrogel<\/span>","orthopedics<\/span>","soft tissue repair<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 5 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 6, 2021","modified":"Updated on May 6, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 6, 2021 11:00 am","modified":"Updated on May 6, 2021 11:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=285585"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=285585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}