Worm glue can help seal tissue b4in.org/s7NF If you’re working in a biology lab, you may want to consider firing some of your assistants and hiring some sandcastle worms; they’re pretty good chemists, able to, among others, biosynthesize glue components they use to build the underwater tubular shelters they call home. Now, researchers are creating adhesives inspired from these chemicals that might make surgeries safer or even block off blood vessels which feed cancerous tumors. Two sandcastle worms’ heads poke out of tubular shelters (white) the worms build, while a third worm is temporarily tube-free. Credit: Fred Hayes, University of Utah “It’s a classic example of borrowing successfully from nature,” comments biomedical sealants specialist Jeffrey M. Karp of Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston. “The Stewart group has taught the world how sandcastle worms achieve underwater adhesion and is now extending these discoveries to an approach that may find many practical solutions in medicine.” The particular application they have in mind are in utero surgeries. Surgeries on developing fetuses are particularly delicate, and the amniotic membranes that protect fetuses in the womb can easily rupture. There are some issues with all adhesives used to treat these wounds; swell too much when they cure, which can cause damage to the delicate amniotic membranes. Others “are ineffective in the flexible, moist, and biochemically active conditions of the human body or are acutely cyotoxic,” says Nick Aldred of Newcastle University, in England, who is an expert on adhesives made by barnacles. More b4in.org/s7NF
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:58:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015