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Hydrogel implant rehabilitates muscles through electrical stimulation

An electrically conductive hydrogel injected into an injured muscle can help the muscle to regenerate and reconnect with the nervous system. This effective soft prosthesis has enabled rats to walk soon after muscular injury.
  1. Milica Radisic

    1. Milica Radisic is in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario ON M5S 3E1, Canada and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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When a muscle is injured, its electrical communication with the nervous system is disrupted, preventing it from functioning properly. Rigid prostheses can be used to help injured people move, but these devices don’t actually restore the connections that enable conscious muscle contraction. An effective prosthesis needs to conduct electrical signals in two directions — towards the muscle to stimulate it, and away from the muscle to provide feedback about how the rehabilitation is progressing1,2. Writing in Nature, Jin et al.3 report a soft prosthesis made from an electrically conductive material that can be injected directly into the injured muscle to help it restore this electrical circuit.

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Nature 623, 37-38 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03211-2

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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