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Broken bones also appreciate some warmth. A biodegradable bone implant can stimulate bone regrowth using heat, doubling the amount of bone tissue regrowth in mice.

Our bones naturally rebuild themselves after small fractures. But with severe traumas, they can鈥檛 always fully grow back on their own.

Bone transplants can be used to treat such injuries, but spare bone tissue isn鈥檛 always available. So, Huaiyu Wang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenzhen and his colleagues developed an alternative approach using a heat-generating implant.

Growth and repair

When cells, including those in bones, encounter enough heat they produce proteins that encourage growth and repair. However, using this to stimulate bone growth is normally difficult without damaging nearby skin and muscles.

To get around this, the team created an implant that produces heat when exposed to near-infrared light. This light can travel through skin and muscle without causing harm.

The team鈥檚 implant can be moulded into any shape to replace part of a bone that is damaged. As the bone starts to grow, the implant degrades, providing more space for the growth.

The implant was tested on five mice with damaged tibia bones in their lower legs. The team shone near-infrared light onto the implant spot for 7.5 minutes once a week for five weeks.

Ten weeks after implantation, the five mice that received the treatment had twice as much new bone tissue as the five that didn鈥檛.

The team plans to use 3D printing to make the implants. 鈥淏ecause the damaged part of the bone will have different shapes and structures, 3D printing can create products that are more compatible,鈥� says Wang.