Humans may soon have robotic shoulders and joints to contribute to solving some health problems, or perhaps to support their physique, as scientists have finally been able to implement unique robotic skeletons designed to look and move like real humans in order to grow tendons strong enough to carry out real implants.
The scientific sources indicated that, if scientists were able to improve the proof and development of this concept through more scientific research processes, it is possible one day to graft or implant these tissues, supported by human-like robots, on a real person, and repair the damaged areas with their tendons as well.
Today, surgeons can experiment with hand tendon repair, by implanting a graft from another tendon in the body, but the results are inconclusive, which has made scientists search for more than two decades for alternative strategies, such as engineering artificial tendons for implants.
Growing new tendons from human cells outside the body is difficult work, but it is currently being carried out in small bioreactor rooms, which simulate joint conditions.
Existing evidence suggests that dynamic movement such as stretching and flexion is key in the evolution of these tendons, but even the most modern bioreactors fall short in simulating the range and magnitude of the movements expected of the tendon. But robots can help solve this problem by so-called “breaking” of tendons.
The concept was demonstrated using a simplified robotic shoulder joint, but when human cells derived from the shoulder tendon were grown in a flexible bioreactor chamber—a chamber that could bend and stretch with the robot’s arm—the tendon cells proliferated faster than those nurtured in a stationary environment.
Tendons are naturally exposed to mechanical stress, such as tension, compression, twisting and other movements, so it makes sense that similar movements would help engineered or manufactured versions grow as well.