The research team of Professor Hyung Joon Cha (CE), Prof. Dong-Woo Cho (ME), and Prof. Rhie, Jong Won (The Catholic University of Korea) succeeded in developing functional three-dimensional scaffolds that enhance regeneration of bone tissue. Using mussel adhesive proteins, it is safe for the human body. It is also proven to be remarkable in adhesion and coating. This research was published in the Apr. 2 online version of Acta Biomaterialia, a renowned academic journal in the field of body materials.
The research team affixed the stem cell on the surface of the polymer using the mussel-extracted bioadhesive protein with biofunctioning peptide, which is Prof. Cha’s area of focus. When this technology was tested on mice, the bone regeneration improved by four folds with no side effects. Above all, this technology attracts attention of the academia in that it not only allows the stem cell from human fat to grow well, but also helps stem cells to detach from the bone tissue.
According to Prof. Cha, this research is “the first application case of the mussel-extracted recombinant adhesive proteins in tissue engineering.” He further expected it to become the coating material of functional scaffolds for diverse human tissue regeneration.