Can we repair damaged cartilage?


Have you ever experienced joint pain? Or you may have watched the advertisement about easing the joint pain. Joint pain can be caused by the wearing of cartilages which is an important connective tissue between bones in our body. But it is not easy to repair as the specialized cell named chondrocyte cannot migrate to the damaged areas.  

But recently, a new bio-glass material is developed which is believed to be potentially encouraging the cartilage to re-grow. Bio-glass is a group of the bioactive materials which may be used to replace damaged bone by implantation.  

Bio-glass in different shape


The new material is consisted of silica and polycaprolactone(PCL). This material has cartilage-like properties including being flexible, strong, durable and resilient. It can also be made in a biodegradable ink form, enabling 3D printing and shaped it into structures that encourage cartilage cells to form and grow.

Polycaprolactone(PCL)


For people who have damaged cartilages, most of them have to have joint replacement which will decrease their mobility. As the new materials is bio-degradable, scaffold printed with the bio-glass ink can degraded gradually after encouraging the cartilage cells to grow. The new cartilages replace the original one and the scaffold is degraded so that mobility is less affected. A polycaprolactone scaffold