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Medical implants strive to mimic the real thing
May 13, 1997
Web posted at: 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT)From Correspondent Andrew Holtz
(CNN) -- It's never easy to fool Mother Nature, but scientists developing medical implants and artificial body parts are trying.
From titanium teeth to blood vessels made from Gore-tex, medical implants have saved or improved the lives of millions. But they're far from perfect, and they often present complications for those who must live with them.
One drawback is that the human body often recognizes the new part as "foreign" and puts up a 'wall' around it.
But doctors are gaining insight into how to get the body to accept new parts and get tissues to heal directly to the implant.
"We believe we can tap into that new knowledge on what does turn cells on, what turns on healing, what is healing and use that in medical devices," said Buddy Ratner of the University of Michigan.
One possibility: to coat implants with surfaces that mimic those of natural tissues.
"To our eyes you would probably see very little difference in this, but to the cell, if you could bring yourself down to that level, it would look completely different than stainless steel. It would look like something it would normally be seeing in a hip joint," Patrick Stayton of the University of Washington said.
That way, the body's guardian, the immune system, would respond to the implant as a friend, rather than a foe.
Today's implants are designed in essence to disrupt as little as possible. But in the future, when implants are challenged by the immune system's sentinel cells, they may be able to respond -- given the right password.
Related site:
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- Research in Bio-Medical Engineering - University of Leeds
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