A new way to create joint inflammation in mice could reveal new and cheaper ways to create more common types of joint cuts requiring fewer surgeries and generating higher urine output.
Mice with arthritis had significantly less urine output after being fed just 100 percent hydrogel and transplanted into their joints.
Study results are published today in Human Reproduction.
ZetaLogic, a company based in Forrest City, North Carolina, designed the synthetic hydrogel, which has a top strength of only 150 pounds per cubic millimeter (BCM). The company’s chief scientific officer, Ricardo Alonso-Fernande, says the new formulation could help make the key breakthrough, which takes hold after surgeries such as hip replacements to treat osteoporosis or spinal taps to treat a common transient disorder of the hip joint. It could also raise the life expectancy of patients with painful condition, he says.
The team implanted the synthetic hydrogel, a formulation that lasts for up to six days, into injured mice, generating 25 milliliters of urine per day. Then squeezing the “molecular agents” released when they release their weight into the joints assisted. Then the mice were taken out of pain, giving doctors a day to monitor their healing and create an output for detection by the kidneys and bladder as well as the gut and lung.
Since the use of the synthetic, urine output rose by nearly 60 percent, swimming along with the overall increase in urine volume. However, the volume of urine which was excreted in the mild process also increased. This suggests urine output did increase around the nerve damage.
Alonso-Fernande says the new formulation is “a challenging and novel approach, but promising. We are excited to see this work translate into clinical translation in the future.”
Jason Gadgets, Director of the North Carolina Biomarkers and Bioengineering Core at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says while the study results are promising, “the next step is to examine the long-term safety and viability of the approach in a larger animal model.”
