New composite material may restore damaged soft tissue

A promising liquid material that can restore damaged soft tissue has been discovered by biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins. This material is injected under the skin and then put under light to form a solid structure. This promising innovation is composed of hyaluronic acid (HA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) , which are components that confer elasticity and serve as surgical glue. In addition, polyethylene glycol is known to form chemical bonds between many individual molecules by using light energy.

The bioengineers performed a series of experiments with rats in order to compose the most effective and long-term stable PEG-HA composite. They found out that the implants created from HA shrank over time compared to the ones created from high tested concentration of PEG and HA which remained the same size over a period of time. The implant proved to be successful when three volunteers undergoing tummy tucks were injected with the PEG-HA. The implants proved to have no effect in size, and only appeared to have mild to moderate inflammation due to the presence of white blood cells.

Researchers are still trying to evaluate the safety of the material in different types of human tissues. Their goal however, is to develop a product for individuals who are in need of extensive facial reconstruction; like war veterans.

http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=10260