Scientists have invented a set of tiny sensors that can help tailor rehabilitation programs for those recovering from broken bones.
Proper rehabilitation is key to ensuring the natural repair process is carried out correctly, and the devices offered crucial feedback that sped up this process in lab rats, allowing them to recover from femur fractures months ahead of schedule.
Developed by researchers at the University of Oregon, the sensors transmit real-time data about what’s happening at an injury site after being implanted in the body.
The team says that the sensors would allow physicians to monitor a patient’s progress and adjust exercises along the way to ensure they’re benefiting from the right amount of exercise.
They used the technology in a study, published in the journal NPJ Regenerative Medicine, to show that a resistance-training rehab program can “significantly improve” femur injuries in rats in just eight weeks. Most femoral fractures take around four to six months to heal completely.
“Our data support early resistance rehabilitation as a promising treatment to increase bone formation, bone healing strength, and promote full restoration of mechanical properties to pre-injury levels,” said senior author of the study, Professor Bob Guldberg.
It’s long been understood that post-injury exercise follows a Goldilocks principle: too little or too much can impede recovery, while just the right amount can enhance healing. However, pinpointing the exact type and intensity of exercise needed for the best recovery can be challenging, especially as it varies from patient to patient, and from bone to bone.
For their study, the researchers aimed to test whether resistance running, a specific type of recovery exercise, could provide the right mechanical stimulation to improve bone recovery.
To do that, they built custom brakes for rodent exercise wheels, which added resistance similar to increasing the level on an elliptical machine or stationary bike.
Rats with femur injuries and implanted sensors then ran on either a regular exercise wheel or the modified resistance exercise wheel.
The sensors transmitted strain data throughout the exercises, offering the research team a glimpse into the mechanical environment of bone cells during recovery.
Over the eight-week study, researchers monitored the healing process of the injured femurs and found that the resistance-trained rats displayed early signs of bone healing compared to those in sedentary or non-resistance conditions.
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By the end of the eight-week recovery period, the sedentary, non-resistance, and resistance-trained mice showed bone healing, but the resistance-trained animals had denser tissue, indicating that resistance rehab enhanced bone formation.
In fact, the injured bones of the resistance-trained rats exhibited mechanical properties, such as torque and stiffness, comparable to those of uninjured bones, something that Guldberg says indicates resistance training enhances recovery, even without any additional drugs or biological stimulants.
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“One of the most impactful aspects of this work is that our resistance rehabilitation could regenerate the femur to normal strength within eight weeks without biological stimulants, and we’re really excited about that,” said study leader Dr. Kylie Williams.
Although the research was conducted in rodents, the team hopes that data-enabled rehab can also be used to improve healing in human patients who sustain musculoskeletal injuries.
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Towards that goal, Penderia Technologies—a campus startup—is working on further improvements to the implantable sensors, including a battery-free design and wearable monitors to aid use in human patients.
“We are hopeful this work can one day be translated to clinical settings, where these sensors can capture personalized measurements that account for injury type and severity to best inform rehabilitation decisions,” Guldberg concluded.
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