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A glue made by an amazing sea creature to build its own home may repair shattered human bones.
In fact, University of Utah bioengineers are developing a synthetic copy pulled from the best of the worm's recipe to just that and maybe even more.
In this case, it's a little worm that, as an adult, is only about an inch long. The worm lives in the tidal regions of the ocean is called the Sandcastle worm.
It lives in a protective tubular structure that it builds itself by reaching out with tentacles to grab bits and pieces of surrounding material. The worm sweeps the grains inward, applies a homemade glue and then adds it to its house.
University of Utah bioengineer Russell Stewart said, "This glue is unique because it's carried in water, basically, so it's a water solution of molecules which work underwater to bond together wet substrates."
Stewart said the recipe that gives this glue remarkable properties in water could also bond together shattered human bones, which in the body are also in a wet environment.
Modified in the lab, the properties of this adhesive can be synthesized and, perhaps, applied via syringe to injured bones without invasive surgery.
The nontoxic glue would hold things together while the body makes a permanent repair, and then it would degrade naturally. "We hope to eventually produce a material that would not only fix the fracture but also deliver medicine basically to help with the natural healing process."
The team effort in this discovery involved university researchers from both bioengineering and orthopedics.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
