Tag Archives: Gel

Gel That Restores Tooth Enamel Could Help Prevent Decay

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Enamel shields teeth from harm, yet can be easily compromised

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The gel incorporates compounds found in saliva to aid in the repair and regeneration of tooth enamel while preventing cavity formation that necessitates fillings.

Enamel, the tough and glossy outer layer of teeth, safeguards the sensitive inner part from wear, acids, and bacteria. “Enamel serves as your initial defense; when it starts to deteriorate, tooth decay accelerates,” explains Dr. Alvaro Mata from the University of Nottingham, UK. Since enamel does not self-repair, methods like fluoride varnishes and remineralizing treatments merely prevent further deterioration.

In search of a solution, Mata and his team engineered a gel that contains a modified protein designed to mimic amelogenin, which is vital for enamel growth in early development.

Tests revealed that applying the gel to human teeth under a microscope in a calcium and phosphate solution—the essential components of enamel—yielded a thin, robust layer that persisted for weeks, even during brushing.

This gel establishes a framework that utilizes calcium and phosphate to fill imperfections and encourage the organized development of new crystals in the enamel beneath the gel layer, even if a significant portion of the dentin is exposed.

“The gel successfully grew crystals epitaxially, meaning it mirrored the crystal orientation of the existing enamel,” Mata states.

This alignment allows the new growth, achieving thicknesses of up to 10 micrometers, to integrate with the underlying natural tissue, reconstructing both the structure and functionality of the enamel. “Growth occurs within a week,” remarks Mata. The method proved effective not only with the specific solution employed but also with donated saliva, which naturally contains calcium and phosphate.

Electron microscopy images of a demineralized tooth showcasing eroded crystals (left) and a similar tooth after two weeks of gel treatment that reveals epitaxially regenerated enamel crystals (right)

Professor Alvaro Mata, University of Nottingham

A comparable approach was noted in 2019, but it resulted in a thinner coating, only partially restoring the inner enamel structure.

Clinical trials on humans are set to commence early next year. Mata is also establishing a company named Mintech-Bio, hoping to launch its first product by late 2026 for use by dentists.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Magnetic Gel: A More Effective Solution for Kidney Stone Removal

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Kidney stones are a common and painful condition

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Devices utilizing magnets may offer a more efficient method for removing kidney stones compared to traditional techniques, potentially reducing the necessity for repeated surgeries.

Kidney stones form when minerals in urine crystallize. If they become lodged in the kidneys or move into the ureters, the tubes connecting the kidneys to the bladder, they can lead to significant discomfort.

Current treatments often involve breaking the stones into smaller pieces through methods such as guiding a thin tube with a laser through the bladder into the ureters and kidneys, or applying ultrasound waves externally.

Surgeons typically extract these fragments individually using a wire basket that passes in and out of the urethra. This repetitive retrieval process can result in tissue damage. About 40% of the time, residual debris is left behind, particularly if small particles evade the basket, increasing the risk of additional stones.

Seeking alternatives, Joseph Liao and his team at Stanford University in California previously engineered a magnetic gel designed to coat stone debris and a magnetic wire to capture it in lab settings.

Recently, they implemented this method in a study involving four pigs. They introduced various fragments of human kidney stones into the pigs’ kidneys before injecting the magnetic gel. By utilizing a magnetic wire inserted through the urethra, the researchers managed to extract multiple stone fragments simultaneously, unlike the traditional wire basket method that retrieves them one at a time. “It’s like using a stick to fish out a snot filled with stone debris, allowing for the removal of significant amounts of stone fragments at once,” explained Liao.

This technique appears to cause less tissue damage than conventional methods since fewer invasive procedures are necessary. Unlike wire baskets, the magnetic device effectively captures debris of varying sizes, permitting thorough removal of all remnants from the kidney, as noted by Rio. This not only decreases the chance of new stones forming but also curtails the need for additional surgeries.

“This is a very promising method,” states Veronica Magdanz from the University of Waterloo, Canada, who was not involved in the research. “Any advancement that enhances the success rate of stone collection and facilitates the removal of more pieces at once is advantageous.”

None of the pigs exhibited any adverse reactions to the gel. “This is excellent news. It is non-toxic and harmless,” Magdanz remarked. After refining the technique through further pig studies, Rio and his team aim to begin human trials within approximately a year.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The glassy gel is as rigid as plastic and can extend up to seven times its original length.

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Glassy gels are a new class of materials that are as stiff as plastic but extremely stretchy.

Meishan Wang, North Carolina State University

When you think of gel, you might imagine something sludgy, but the new gel-like material has been engineered to be strong and transparent like glass, yet flexible enough to stretch to almost seven times its original length.

Michael Dickey The North Carolina State University researchers say they discovered the “glassy gel” when student Meishan Wang was experimenting with ionic liquids and kept finding unexpected mechanical properties. The material they came up with is more than 50 percent liquid, yet it's as strong as the plastic in water bottles, and it's also highly stretchable and sticky. “It has a lot of great properties,” Wang says.

Each glassy gel is made up of long molecules called polymers mixed with ionic liquid (essentially liquid salt). The gels are transparent solids that can withstand up to 400 times atmospheric pressure, yet easily stretch up to 670 percent. Dickey says this could make them suitable for building soft robotic grippers or for 3D printing deformable materials.

He and his colleagues created glassy gels from mixtures of several polymers and liquid salts, and found that their strength and stretchability depended on the exact ratios used.

“By simply changing the ratio of the two materials, we can make something as stretchy as a rubber band or as hard as glass,” Dickey says.

This is because the material's stretchability comes from the ionic liquid depositing in the spaces between the stiff polymer molecules, pushing them apart, while its strength comes from electrostatic attraction between the charged particles in the liquid and the polymer, which prevents the particles from moving apart completely.

The glassy gel is also capable of self-repair; cuts or breaks can be repaired by applying heat, causing the molecules at the broken edges to rejoin. Richard Hoogenboom Researchers at Ghent University in Belgium say the technique could be useful in some cases where traditional plastics are used, but that the formulations may need to be tweaked to only soften at high enough temperatures to avoid accidental softening.

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Source: www.newscientist.com