This Seashell Protein Could Help Heal Bone, Skin and Eye Damage

Unless you're very lucky, you've probably suffered a broken bone at some point in your life. Every stage of this injury, from the instant it happens to the recovery period, can be hard to deal with. So if you're laid out watching TV and an old Star Trek rerun comes on, it's hard not to get a little bitter. They have devices that can heal injuries worse than yours instantly while you're stuck waiting for your bones to slowly recover.

It'll be longer than any of us can tell before we reach that level of technology, but you may find some comfort in a project from Rutgers University. There, Ronke Olabisi and her lab are working on a special hydrogel that can repair or replace damaged tissue. Surprisingly, a key ingredient in this gel comes from seashells and it's showing some promising early effects.

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Typically, it takes about two or three months to heal a broken leg.

Even then, the leg still ends up a little weaker than it was before you broke it.

So far, Olabisi's gel has shortened this time frame to two to three weeks. 

Moreover, the gel seemed to heal bone defects completely when it was tested on rats.

Strangely, it wouldn't be able to do it without a protein from seashells.

The protein can be found inside the nacre, the shiny inner layer that collectors love. You may have noticed this part of the shell is unusually strong, which is because of this protein.

It turns out the protein is just as effective with bones.

Olabisi said bones like the protein "a lot." With her mixture, bone tissue expands to form all new bones, thus filling in the defects created when one breaks. 

Unfortunately, it's going to be a long time before we can actually use this stuff.

Olabisi's lab is still in the middle of animal testing so it's going to be a while before we can find out if her gel works on humans. Even if it does, it'll be even longer before it becomes available to any of us.

If it does work, this gel is full of possibilities.

It could be effective for treating bone damage caused by aging. And a similar gel from Olabisi's lab is showing effective results against persistent diabetes sores.

These gels could even go on to help astronauts.

Long-term spaceflight has a way of weakening bones and astronauts often experience skin damage due to solar radiation. Olabisi's work could end up repairing both their weakened bones and their damaged skin tissue.

Olabisi's lab is also working on a gel to heal retinal tissue.

Studies have found that astronauts also suffer eye damage from what they do, so this would have that problem covered as well. 

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