![\""The\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-12-at-14.10.00-4631cab.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C277"\" "\\"\"The\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>This bunny could hold the key to fixing your bum knee. Researchers at the University of Connecticut have successfully regrown damaged cartilage in a rabbit\u2019s knee joint using biodegradable polymers with a nifty electric property.<\/p>\n
It is currently estimated that around 10 per cent of the UK\u2019s population have been diagnosed with arthritis, a disease that causes the pads of cartilage that cushion our joints to deteriorate.<\/p>\n
Eventually, it can lead to cartilage becoming so worn down that bone begins to grind on bone, making everyday activities such as walking extremely painful.<\/p>\n
Current treatments involve physiotherapy and painkillers, but severe cases often require surgery to replace damaged cartilage using a healthy piece taken from elsewhere in the body, or from a donor.<\/p>\n
Now, a team led by bioengineer Thanh Nguyen<\/a> have designed a treatment that uses electrical signals to stimulate cartilage regeneration.<\/p>\n They implanted a tissue scaffold made out of nanofibres of poly-L lactic acid (PLLA), a biodegradable polymer often used to stitch up surgical wounds, into the knee of a rabbit with damaged cartilage.<\/p>\n This material has a property known as piezoelectricity, which means it produces a small burst of electrical current when it is squished.<\/p>\n Once the rabbit was placed onto a treadmill to exercise after receiving the implant, its hopping movements triggered the piezoelectric bursts in the PLLA which stimulated the cartilage to grow back.<\/p>\n \u201cPiezoelectricity is a phenomenon that also exists in the human body. Bone, cartilage, collagen, DNA and various proteins have a piezoelectric response. Our approach to healing cartilage is highly clinically translational, and we will look into the related healing mechanism,\u201d said Dr Yang Liu, a postdoctoral fellow in Nguyen\u2019s group and the lead author of the study.<\/p>\n The team now plan to observe the animals treated for a longer period and to apply the same technique to older animals to see if it is still as effective.<\/p>\n Read more about joint pain:<\/strong><\/p>\n By Jason Goodyer Published: Wednesday, 12 January 2022 at 12:00 am The implant stimulated growth in the rabbit\u2019s cartilage when it exercised on a treadmill \u00a9 Thanh Nguyen\/University of Connecticut This bunny could hold the key to fixing your bum knee. Researchers at the University of Connecticut have successfully regrown damaged cartilage in a rabbit\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":915,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial.jpg",1200,757,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial-300x189.jpg",300,189,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial-768x484.jpg",768,484,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial-1024x646.jpg",800,505,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial.jpg",1200,757,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/knee-cartilage-regrown-in-rabbits-using-electric-nanomaterial.jpg",1200,757,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jason Goodyer Published: Wednesday, 12 January 2022 at 12:00 am The implant stimulated growth in the rabbit\u2019s cartilage when it exercised on a treadmill \u00a9 Thanh Nguyen\/University of Connecticut This bunny could hold the key to fixing your bum knee. Researchers at the University of Connecticut have successfully regrown damaged cartilage in a rabbit\u2019s…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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