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del.icio.usWSU tests make use of mice and med
Implant studies show scientists any reactions
BY ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle
Mouse research
Paul Wooley's research team at Wichita State uses two strains of mice for two categories of experiments.
The strain of white mice, called Balb/c, are used, among other things, for testing materials on mammalian tissues.
A strain of brown mice called DBA/1 are susceptible, given injections of certain proteins, to arthritis. Scientists studying arthritis in these mice can learn much about the disease and treating it in humans.
There is no pain involved in the experiments, and researchers operate according to strict instructions set down by a WSU committee that reviews all their work, Wooley said. The Investigational Animal Care and Use Committee includes veterinary surgeons, laypeople, and university personnel.
The mice are given no names, Wooley said. But they have identities: each mouse wears a tiny metallic ear tag with a number.
Composite materials
• Composites are created when fiber is laid in a matrix and embedded in a resin. The result is lightweight and strong.
• Advancements in composites by experts at WSU could create a new industry in Wichita and transform the local economy.
Medical composites:
• Advanced composite materials offer several advantages over the metal and ceramics used in orthopedic implants. Composites' stiffness and strength can be controlled to a much greater degree, allowing them to be precisely tailored to the patient.
• Hip replacement: A composite hip stem could last longer and reduce painful complications.
• Bone splice plates: Composite plates spanning bone fractures would allow better X-rays of mending fractures than metal plates.
• Other applications: Engineers suggest many other orthopedic uses, including reconstruction of jaws and other facial bones.
Paul Wooley
Birthdate: Aug. 15, 1954
Birthplace: London
Facts: Wooley is an expert in orthopedic surgery, immunology, microbiology and biomedical engineering. Since January he's been the director of the Orthopaedic Research Institute at Via Christi Regional Medical Center.
He's one of the architects of a WSU request to the Kansas Bioscience Authority for $31 million in seed money to research and build a new industry in Wichita, using composite materials to make medical devices. The authority might decide on the request late this year or early in 2009.
On the fifth floor of Hubbard Hall at Wichita State University lives a tiny village of 48 mice who, in the family sense, have always been really close to each other.
They are lab mice, the products of hundreds of generations of mouse incest, a breeding practice that has made them genetically identical and therefore perfect for medical experiments.
Scientist Paul Wooley is fond of them.
Wooley and his collaborators are people with a mission -- the mice could help Wichita invent not only new medical implants but an entire industry to manufacture them, complete with thousands of jobs.
Since April, Wooley's research team has been sticking microscopic fragments of advanced composite materials under the mice's skin to see how their tissues react. They're looking for the right material to build artificial hips and other medical devices.
"I'm sure that the ideal composite material for human medical implants are out there somewhere," Wooley said, sitting at his microscope.
"And with the work we're doing here, we'll find it."
This work will be expensive -- WSU has asked the state for $31 million over five years to study the invention of medical implants. The mice, which weigh less than an ounce, cost $35 each. "Rather expensive by the pound," Wooley said.
What Wooley, surgeon David McQueen, and their collaborators in Wichita are inventing is a new generation of implants that Wooley said will bring huge relief to a generation suffering from worn-out joints.
The results, Wooley said, could revolutionize orthopedic and other forms of medicine over the next 10 years.
Testing for reactions
Mice aren't much different from humans, Wooley said -- at least not on the scale of difference among mammals.
They are similar enough that Wooley and other scientists have been testing how their bodies react to implants made of some of the same advanced carbon composite materials that have begun to revolutionize the aerospace industry.
Will the reaction be benign? Will it cause inflammation? (Inflammation is never good). Will the composite break down after long contact with human fluids and tissues?
Wooley is a scientist in orthopedic surgery, immunology, microbiology and biomedical engineering. His work has also made him a bit of an authority on lab mice, which have been part of his work since he came to the United States from Britain in 1980 to do lab work on arthritis at the Mayo Clinic.
In the Hubbard Hall laboratory, in one of the key experiments Wooley's team conducts, mice are given an injection of air beneath the skin of their backs. The resulting air sac fills naturally with fluids, and Wooley's team introduces a piece of material into the sac.
If the mouse tissue reacts unfavorably to the material, coating or fiber, they know they've got a material unsuitable for human use.
As his tests progress, Wooley said, his team will begin other tests, implanting tiny composite rods into the tiny femurs of mice, an experiment mimicking how they'd like to eventually put bracing rods made from composites into human legs to heal them.
Although hip replacements won't be the only medical devices they intend to invent, composite hips will likely be the big-ticket item that might propel a big payoff industry in Wichita, Wooley said.
Composites can probably be engineered to be spongier, porous enough to let the body carry nutrients through; and more flexible, more able to bend with the natural torque that a human hip employs to provide natural movement. A more flexible hip replacement would not damage surrounding bone.
But finding the right stuff is key, and the mice are the key to finding the right stuff, he said.
Reach Roy Wenzl at 316-268-6219 or rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com.
