A sticky gel made from a compound found in a tanning spray promises to work as a new wound healing agent, according to a group of biomedical engineers at Cornell.
The gel helped to heal the wounds made during surgery, say plastic surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. And it might prove effective in filling the tissue gaps left by breast cancer surgery.
The team tested the efficacy of MPEG-pDHA, which includes the sticky compound that allows tanning solution to adhere to the skin. Unlike other types of bio-glues, it's easily removed from the body. DHA was bound to a "protecting group molecule" that made it manageable. That mixture was used to make a polymer that could be injected with a needle.
"Making a polymer from DHA has eluded chemical engineers for about 20 years," says Dr. David Putnam, the study's senior author and a biomedical engineer from Cornell University's Department of Biomedical Engineering and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
- here's the report from Physorg