Pyrometallide gels are types of gels based on pyromellitamide molecules. Such gels being developed which will enable the repair of severed

muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...

s and

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

s in patients.

Artificial muscles

These types of artificial muscles are made possible by creating synthetic materials which are very similar to the ones which make up human tissues and cells. These artificial materials are so similar that the body does not reject the material and instead allows normal

cell growth Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

in the materials which eventually become absorbed into the body.

Self-assembled gel

The gel molecule is composed of a tetra-alkane benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxamide. The gel structure is made up of millions of tiny fibres, which form a 3D mesh by trapping a

liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...

in the same way that a

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

absorbs water, to form a solid. The unique feature of self-assembled gels is that

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...

s are not required to form the fibres; it is simply a case of heating them up in a liquid and waiting for them to set.

Uses

There is huge range of potential applications for these gels. Aside from the artificial muscles, these gels could also be used for

drug delivery Drug delivery involves various methods and technologies designed to transport pharmaceutical compounds to their target sites helping therapeutic effect. It involves principles related to drug preparation, route of administration, site-specif ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

patients, where they can injected into the patient, and the gel will slowly release a constant stream of anti-cancer drugs in the body. There are also applications for computer and television screens, where gels are used for

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

screens. These gels could lower the

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

costs and be used to construct

flexible display A flexible display or rollable display is an electronic visual display which is flexible in nature, as opposed to the traditional Flat panel display, flat screen displays used in most electronic devices. In recent years there has been a growing ...

screens.

References

Muscular system {{muscle-stub