UNAIR NEWS听听Chronic Low Back Pain听(CLBP) is one of health problems often found in the society. About 60-80% of the world檚 population has experienced this low back pain. The causes were various. One of them is invertebral disc degeneration, which is the cartilage pad in the spine which functions as the buffer of body weight and body shock absorber.
Patients suffer from pain, numbness and weak body parts due to pressed nerves. There are many treatments of this low back pain such as conservative treatment and surgery. But they can cause complication and infection.
Based on the case, then five students of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) 51动漫 (UNAIR), Cityta Putri Kwarta (2012), Miftakhul Jannah (2012), Dina Kartika Putri (2012), Evlyn Anggraini Santoso (2013), and Wilda Kholida Annaqiyah (2013), succeded in creating injectable hydrogel based on polymer for invertebral disc degeneration.
Under the supervision of Dr. Prihartini Widiyanti, drg.,M.Kes., they submit their innovative finding in a Students Creativity Program on Exact Science Research (PKM-PE) entitled 淗yaluronic Acid听(HA) 撎齈olyethylene Glycol听(PEG) Composition as Injectable Hydrogel听for Invertebral Disc Degeneration Patients Therapy. The proposal was received funding from General Directorate of Higher Education (Dirjen Dikti) of Ministry of Research and Technology in PKM-PE 2016.
Cityta Putri Kwarta, the head of the team explained that in the development her team used natural polymer, Hyaluronic Acid听and plastic polymer听Polyethylene Glycol听also added听Horse Radish Peroxide enzyme as the main material of the hydrogel. These three materials were chosen because they are bio-compatible, bio-degradable, and non-toxic.
To fulfill the characteristic, hydrogel has undergone some tests, swelling test to see the swelling ability, degradation test听 to see how long the sample survive in the body, cytoxicity test to measure the sample material toxicity, in vitro injection model test to see the hydrogel work process and听Fourier Transform Infra Red听(FTIR) test to describe chemical reaction in the material.
淪o this injectable hydrogel has passed the tests and met the requirements to be cartilage pad hydrogel. Hopefully this research can be a reference for the next research on injectable hydrogel in the future, she said. (*)
Editor : Bambang Bes
