In order to help re-grow damaged tissues, engineers have made a device that helps tissues re-grow much faster and in a more efficient way by simply injecting encapsulated tissue cells in the body.
Researchers at UBC Okanagan recently created a device that makes encapsulating cells much faster, more efficient and cheap. “The idea of injecting different kinds of tissue cells is not a new one,” said co-author Keekyoung Kim. “It’s an enticing concept because by introducing cells into damaged tissue, we can supercharge the body’s own processes to re-grow and repair an injury.”
From broken bones to torn ligaments, Kim believes that this approach can benefit everything, while also suggesting that whole organs can also be repaired as the technology will improve, reported Science Daily.
Scientists create life-like material that eats, grows, evolves on its own
However, usually the cells on their own are very fragile and tend not to survive when injected directly into the body. “It turns out that to ensure cell survival, they need to be encased in a coating that protects them from physical damage and from the body’s own immune system,” said lead author Mohamed Gamal. “But it has been extremely difficult to do that kind of cell encapsulation, which has until now been done in a very costly, time consuming and wasteful process.”
The team solved the problem by creating an automated encapsulation device that covers many cells in a microgel with the help of a specialized blue laser and purifies them to create a clean useable sample within few minutes. The plus point of their system is that more than 85% of the cells survived and the process can be easily scaled up.
“Research in this area has been hampered by the cost and lack of availability of mass-produced cell encapsulated microgels,” said Kim. “We’ve solved that problem and our system could provide thousands or even tens of thousands of cell-encapsulated microgels rapidly, supercharging this field of bioengineering.”
Moreover, along with creating a quicker and more efficient system, Gamal claimed that the equipment is made up of easily available and cheap components. “Any lab doing this kind of work could set up a similar system anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, which is pretty affordable for lab equipment.”
For their next step, researchers are looking forward to embed various stem cells into the microgels along with specialized proteins or hormones known as growth factors. The idea is to help stem cells transform into appropriate tissue type once injected.