Dragonflies offer a blueprint for treating sprains. Healthy cartilage, meanwhile, is important for knee and hip joints – but once damaged it can’t heal of its own accord.
Enter a US research team and its new biopaste made from a special bioactive peptide and modified hyaluronic acid.
When injected into damaged cartilage, the paste morphs into a structured growth medium and stimulates the body to produce proteins. These, in turn, settle on the scaffold and create new cartilage tissue in the process.
Over time the biomaterial degrades (just like new heart valves). Initial tests on sheep cartilage, which closely resembles that of humans, showed very promising results after six months.
Removing a specific enzyme could alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
