"If you've got a large, open wound, your body moves, your skin moves, your muscles flex, and if this doesn't flex with it, it simply is going to tear. This has good mechanical strength, but it also has elasticity," he said.
Miller estimated the collagen-based sealant needs to be applied only once, therefore making it relatively inexpensive compared to other treatments.
About 10 ml enough to fill a wound a little more than 1 inch in diameter and inch deep could be made for less than $100, he said. Even if a production as a medical grade material increases the cost, it still would be cheaper than repeated visits to the physician's office to keep getting the wound cleaned, treated and re-bandaged several times a week, Miller said.
"One dose of this could replace all of that, and all you have to do is change the covering a couple of times a week," he said.
Miller also believes other healing promoters such as slow-release antibiotics could be added to the sealant. Basic Fibroblast growth factor, a protein which stimulates the growth of new connective tissue and blood vessels, already has been tested and found to further increase the rate of wound closure in 1-year-old rats.
He hopes further animal and human studies can begin soon.
"We cannot claim it increases the incidence of healing. That has not been tested yet. We observed that it seems to have decreased the visibility of scars, but we didn't test that either."
Additional uses for this material might include a slow release depot for vaccines, adjuvants or drugs; bone repair; or graft or prosthetic implant stabilization.
"This product would have a potential widespread market throughout veterinary medical, and human medical and dental practice," he said.
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Contact: Edith Chenault
newsteam@agnews.tamu.edu
979-845-2886
Texas A&M University - Agricultural Communications
25-Jul-2003