Catalunya: Collagen nanofibres spun into cartilage replacement

Research lead

Camila Flor, a student at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, School of Industrial and Aeronautic Engineering, has developed techniques for manufacturing of synthetic cartilage from collagen nanofibres. The work is part of a macroproject coordinated by the laboratory of Juan Hinestroza of Cornell University, US, the creator of bactericidal clothing.

Orienting or controlling collagen nanofibres is an extremely complex task because collagen is a natural polymer that is very difficult to control. Flor achieved this using the electrospinning method.

The collagen nanofibres are obtained by exposing the collagen to electrical discharges. The collagen is extruded in the form of a nanofibre thread, through a fine needle and is deposited on an electric collector consisting of two grounded plates. A non-conductive material is placed between the two conducting plates, causing the nanofibres to align on top of each other perfectly in parallel lines between the two conducting plates, and mimicking the parallel arrangement of cartilage fibres in the human knee.

To date, manufacturing synthetic cartilage has been very complex, because of the difficulty of orienting the collagen nanofibres to have the same parallel arrangement as the naturally occurring material. Most synthetic cartilage is manufactured using gelatinous substances derived from collagen.

The next step of the project will be to create a three dimensional structure.