Injectable hydrogel uses light to aid bone regeneration

The advance from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) was led by Professor Hyung Joon Cha, along with Dr Jinyoung Yun and student Hyun Taek Woo. Their research is detailed in Biomaterials.

Conventional treatments for bone defects often involve bone grafts combined with serum or bioadhesives to fill the defect. According to POSTECH, existing injectable hydrogels face challenges such as difficulty in maintaining their shape within the body and limited adhesive strength. Moreover, traditional methods using bone grafts with adhesive materials often fail to achieve simultaneous ‘bone regeneration’ and ‘adhesion’.

Now, the POSTECH team has introduced a novel hydrogel system employs visible light to facilitate cross-linking, where the main components of the hydrogel bond and harden, and to simultaneously boost mineralisation where bone-building minerals like calcium and phosphate form within the hydrogel.

Earlier studies have explored the use of light in similar applications, but they encountered issues such as requiring separate preparation and mixing of bone grafts and adhesive materials, plus weak bonding of the main components, which can degrade over time.