How many bones did you break as a kid?
Some of us emerged from childhood unscathed. Others might have fond — and itchy — memories of casts getting signed. Maybe you remember propping up a pair of crutches near a chair, or wincing at a hip X-ray with a grandparent. Fractures are most common in kids and teens, followed by adults over 50.
Regardless of age, the more severe a bone break, the more likely medical intervention is needed. Typically, surgeons who help put you back together rely on a graft from your own bones or a metal implant. These substitutions help to stabilize your bones, but they also come with their own downsides.
One increases recovery time and surgical risk. Another is much stiffer than “natural” bone and can loosen over time.
Now, researchers from Switzerland are looking at a different filling: jelly.
Laser-printed hydrogel, to be precise.
The substance is designed to imitate how your body heals on its own. And, like you, it’s mostly made of water. The gel is neatly printed into hyper-fine bone-like structures even thinner than a human hair. In test tube studies, bone-forming cells descended on the human-made bone structure in droves and produced collagen, one of the early building blocks of bone.
For bone repair to be successful, all kinds of cells need to move into the implant. Then, they must thrive — and work together.
In the future, the research team hopes to see the hydrogel implants enter clinical use. For now, they plan to see how the hydrogel performs inside living organisms, and if it can bring back bone strength over time.
That’s a point to jelly. Peanut butter, you’re up next.