Regenerative Medicine
Artificial Organs and Artificial Limbs
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Artificial Limbs
Artificial limbs have been around since the time of Egyptians, they were first used to improve a person’s appearance, but since then developing technology has allowed for the prosthetics to enhance an individual’s quality of life. Through the use of biotechnology artificial limbs have become stronger and lighter, and the needs of consumers have evolved. These factors caused the demand for new developments. Researchers now have the ability to make artificial limbs more versatile, comfortable, easy to use, and possibly in the future allow the limbs to coincide with the body’s natural nervous system. These qualities in the up and coming artificial limbs are what biotechnologists strive to achieve in future developments.
Another research area for biotechnologists is the possibility for artificial limbs to become biocompatible with the human nervous system. The term biocompatible means to synthesize an object that is non-living with something that is living. The fusing of non-living materials to the human nervous system is a daunting task that is still undergoing research. So the goal for biotechnologists is to allow the patient to use the prosthetic as if it was a normal body part. The wearer of the artificial limb would be allowed to control the movement of the prosthetic and that would improve the ease of use. The electrical signals given off by the limb would react with the nervous system to send to the brain and vice versa imitating the natural processes, as if the amputee had a natural body part attached.
There are some issues that researchers must resolve before biocompatible limbs are introduced to the public. One major issue is discovering a way to recognize the limb as part of the body instead of having the immune system reject it as foreign. Another problem that biotechnologists face is how will the limb be repaired in case of injury or sudden failure to operate once attached to the body without being overly invasive. While the research is continuing to develop on how to fix these issues, amputees may soon hope for the possibility to regain a life like limb once again.
So the very first artificial limbs were made of wood and a clay like substance, but it wasn’t until about fifty years ago when the use of acrylic resin helped make prosthetics lighter. Older technologies in the past called for the limbs to be created using an acrylic resin that is supported with glass or carbon; however these materials are quite hard to locate and using man made materials brought up environmental risks. So researchers tackled this problem by creating a vegetable fiber that was just as strong but less damaging to the environment.