Spray-on healing threads made from living cells

Filed in archive Medical on November 22, 2006

The Royal Society of Chemistry reports that researchers at University College London have created microthreads from polymers containing living cells. The biologically active threads, they say, could be formed into medical scaffolds to deliver cells directly to tissue and promote healing.

"Imagine a dentist rebuilding a tooth," said Suwan Jayasinghe, who led the study. "Polymers containing stem cells could be sprayed directly onto the tooth and the scaffold of threads would fix the cells in place so that they could proliferate exactly where they are needed."

Jayasinghe claims that spraying the threads directly onto damaged tissue is a 100 per cent biocompatible, risk-free alternative to the use of nanoparticles as a treatment delivery system.

"If a person injured their hand, we could take cells from the person's other hand to heal the injury," he added. "Once they are applied, the polymers degrade and the cells would live happily ever after." (photo Chemistry World)