Biz Report
With advancements in the medical field in the last ten years there are solutions to major problems that in earlier times would cause despair. Now, cells rely heavily on collagen to organize themselves to form organs. Collagen works as a biological adhesive, playing a vital role in tissue and organ formation. Without it they would break down into a disorganized mass of cells. Imagine removing all the glue from a plane model.
What would happen? Now you’re starting to get the idea. When tissues or organs are injured the collagen-based structural supports are damaged. Without the immediate and effective repair of the damaged collagen support the injured tissues or organs have a difficult time recovering from the injury. With the timely use of exogenous collagen scaffolds, healing can start to occur. At this time major sources of medical-grade tissue and organ scaffolds for humans, are chemically synthesized biological materials. Human tissues and organs are obviously limited in their availability and at the same time can suffer from host immune rejection.
Now, chemically synthesized biological materials are widely available but the material strength and porosity really aren’t the same as naturally occurring materials. That brings us to the third option and really the solution to this problem. Xenografts are tissues and organs obtained from common farm animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. The leading company that specializes in the use of xenografts is ACRO Biomedical.
They’ve mastered the technology required to use pig tissue in the repair of human tissue. Since the size of tissues and organs in a fully grown pig is similar in size to a human, they make the best and most suitable tissue repair materials. The pigs used in this process are Specific Pathogen Free or SPF pigs. They are raised in controlled facilities where their health status is monitored constantly. Supercritical Fluids or SCF technology is a time-tested process that has been around for over a century. It’s used to overcome the problem of adverse allergic reaction and tissue rejection. ACRO Biomedical uses Supercritical carbon dioxide or scCO2 to minimally manipulate the natural biomaterial to make sure they retain their natural mechanical strength and porosity. Essentially, this is the process by which the biomaterials are made safe and clinically effective. It’s this technology that gives ACRO Biomedical the advantage over other xenograft-based manufacturers. And it doesn’t just apply to pigs but can be applied to any animal tissues being used as tissue repair scaffolds.
Its application potential is almost unlimited. It can be used in fields such as orthopedics, dentistry, cardiology, ophthalmology, sports injuries, wound healing and more. As an example of the use of this technology we have cornea grafts. There are about 10 million people in the world who are blind due to corneal injury yet each year only 1 to 2% of all patients receive cornea donation. At the same time, many pets suffer from the same problem; therefore, cornea graft is also greatly needed in the pet market. Through ACRO Biomedical cornea grafts there’s a chance for recovery. By creating cornea repair patches and transplanting them they effectively work as artificial corneas. And by removing cells from the animal’s cornea they prevent graft rejection. This is huge as it offers a possible solution to blindness due to cornea injury.
This brings us to a heartwarming story: Chihuahua Bunny undertook a corneal transplantation using ACRO Cornea Graft in early October, 2016. Being the first ever successful canine corneal grafting case using artificial cornea graft yet showed no implant rejection, the result is incredibly successful, and Chihuahua Bunny has healthily recovered from the surgery. Researchers from ACRO Biomedical and National Cheng Kung University are currently carrying out studies to determine the safety and evaluate the performance of the prototype.
For more information on ACRO Biomedical and the innovative work they’re involved in go to their website at Acrobiomedical.com.
Have you listened to the Official NewsWatch Podcast yet? You can head over to our page any time and listen to the great debates that take place between the NewsWatch hosts about the latest in tech. Let us know what you think by subscribing to our blog.
