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Scientists Create a Unique Material Accelerated Tissue Healing

Scientists Create a Unique Material Accelerated Tissue Healing

TPU researchers, together with Russian and international colleagues, have developed a unique material for the rapid restoration of damaged organs and tissues. The new polymer, unlike analogues, has both piezoelectric properties and the ability to biodegrade.

This significantly improves the quality of therapy and the speed of postoperative recovery. The results of the study are published in Advanced Healthcare Materials (Q1, IF: 10.26).

 In regenerative medicine, structures made of polymeric materials, such as scaffolds, are widely used to increase the efficiency of healing complex injuries. They should be biocompatible and biodegradable and have mechanical properties similar to living tissues. It is important that the polymer carcass imitates the structure of the connective tissue that supports the cells.

 According to scientists, further technology development is possible by giving scaffolds the ability to electrically stimulate cells at the site of healing as a result of the piezoelectric effect. This will significantly reduce the recovery time for patients.

 A TPU scientific team with colleagues from Russia, Belgium, and Germany has developed biodegradable polymer scaffolds based on poly-3-oxybiturate with improved piezoelectric response for targeted action on cells. The study was carried out within the framework of international cooperation with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 20-63-47096). Part of the research was conducted at Ghent University (Belgium).

 “Piezoelectric materials generate an electrical surface charge in response to mechanical deformation.

 “We used reduced graphene oxide as a nanofiller for the scaffolds, which made it possible to enhance the piezoelectric properties. There are no other materials with a similar set of properties in the world today,”

Roman Chernozem, a researcher at the TPU International Research Center of Piezo and Magnetoelectric Materials, tells journalists of the RIA news agency.
The scientists noted that, despite the interest of the scientific community in piezopolymers, almost all modern research is devoted to scaffolds that are not able to resolve inside the body and require repeated surgical intervention.

“By acting on electrosensitive tissues and cells, the electroactive polymer is a potentially promising material for increasing the efficiency of repairing damaged areas of the nervous, bone, and other tissues.

 “In addition, the new scaffolds make it possible to better regulate the adhesion of cells to their surface and stimulate the germination of tissues into the internal space of the structure,” Maria Surmeneva, head of the Russian Science Foundation project and leading researcher at the TPU International Research Center of Piezo and Magnetoelectric Materials, says.

 The next research stage is testing the developed materials using laboratory animals.