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Updated:05/27/2022 12:49h
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Technology has gone a step further to help regenerate human tissues that, due to trauma, must be regenerated. Researchers at the University of Oxford (UK) have designed a human-like robotic system for growing human tendon tissue, which connects muscle to bone.
The findings, presented in Nature Communications Engineering, could improve the production and quality of tissue grafts for future use in patients and support the development of advanced robotic systems.
Human tendon grafts require external forces to stimulate growth and improve functionality. For more than 20 years, robotics has facilitated the growth of engineered tissues in bioreactors using stretching devices, but researchers are not yet able to produce fully functional tissue grafts that can be used clinically.
Humanoid robots, which mimic human movements and forces more realistically, are being investigated as a method to improve tissue graft quality, as current stretching bioreactors are not yet able to mimic the growth conditions of the plant well. real life or mechanical stress.
The group of Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and colleagues designed and demonstrated the combination of a soft, flexible bioreactor chamber with a humanoid robot shoulder joint, allowing complex movements to be applied directly to cells. The robot was able to mimic human shoulder movements and exert realistic stretching forces on the growing tendon cells in the chamber.
The authors found that after 14 days, the degree of force exerted by the robot’s movements influenced the growth of human cells and their gene expression compared to static culture.
This approach could offer new opportunities to develop robotic systems for tissue engineering and improved culture models for future use in human patients.
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