Making Engineered Cartilage Stronger (IMAGE)

University of California - Davis

Making Engineered Cartilage Stronger

Caption

Connective tissues like cartilage are made of cross-linked bundles of collagen fibers. UC Davis biomedical engineers have discovered that reducing oxygen or adding an enzyme called LOX can make these bundles stronger. The technique can be used to strengthen both natural cartilage kept in the lab for transplant, and artificial cartilage grown in culture.

Credit

Eleftherios Makris and Kyriacos Athanasiou, UC Davis

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