{"id":231932,"date":"2025-06-23T07:01:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=231932"},"modified":"2025-06-27T10:23:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:23:52","slug":"nguyens-injectable-piezoelectric-gel-could-treat-osteoarthritis-without-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/06\/nguyens-injectable-piezoelectric-gel-could-treat-osteoarthritis-without-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Nguyen’s Injectable Piezoelectric Gel Could Treat Osteoarthritis without Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, a painful joint disease that wears down cartilage and can severely impact mobility. Pain medications only mask symptoms, and surgical option carry risks of infection and immune rejection.<\/p>\n

\"Thanh<\/a>
Thanh Nguyen <\/span>examines a sample of piezoelectric nanofibers which will be used for the injectable hydrogel for cartilage regeneration. (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the University of Connecticut, a research team led by\u00a0Thanh Nguyen<\/a>, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, believes the future of joint repair might lie in a tiny electrical spark\u2014and a simple injection.<\/p>\n

Backed by a $2.3M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), Nguyen and his team are developing an injectable hydrogel designed to stimulate cartilage regeneration in large animal models.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith current treatments, we\u2019re managing the pain, not healing the tissue,\u201d says Nguyen. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the body\u2019s own mechanical movements\u2014like walking\u2014can generate tiny electrical signals that encourage cartilage to grow back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The innovation harnesses the body\u2019s natural bioelectric signals to promote healing. The injectable gel contains a piezoelectric scaffold\u2014a composite made from biodegradable poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) nanofibers and magnesium oxide nanoparticles. When subjected to mechanical stress\u2014such as joint movement or ultrasound\u2014this scaffold generates small electrical charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy delivering [electrical] signals directly to damaged areas, the scaffold can stimulate cell activity and encourage the regeneration of strong, durable cartilage, particularly in high-load joints like the knees and hips.\u201d \u2014 Thanh Nguyen, College of Engineering<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These mimic the body\u2019s natural electrical cues that guide tissue development and repair.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy delivering these signals directly to damaged areas, the scaffold can stimulate cell activity and encourage the regeneration of strong, durable cartilage, particularly in high-load joints like the knees and hips,\u201d Nguyen says. \u201cThis method also is cell-free and drug-free, a major advantage over traditional regenerative therapies that often require lab-grown stem cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new grant-funded study, titled\u00a0\u201cInjectable Cell-Free Piezoelectric Scaffold to Treat Osteoarthritis in Large Animal Models<\/a>,\u201d will run through 2029. It\u2019s based on two previous studies by Nguyen, his former postdoctoral fellow Yang Liu (now a professor at Peking University, China) and his former student Tra Vinikoor \u201924 Ph.D. (now an advisor at the federal Food and Drug Administration). In these studies, the team injected the gel into the knees of rabbits with damaged cartilage, and within two months, saw re-formed, functional cartilage in the animals\u2019 knees.<\/p>\n

Their work was published in the top medical journals of Scie<\/a>nce<\/a> Translational Medicine<\/a> and Nature Communication<\/a>. (See previous UConn Today articles: Regrowing Cartilage in a Damaged Knee Gets Closer to Fixing Arthritis<\/a> and Gel Repairs Cartilage Without Surgery, With Electricity<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"knee<\/a>
Nguyen\u2019s team will spend the next four years testing the injectable gel\u2019s effectiveness in large animal models. This is a key step before human clinical trials. (contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the next four years, Nguyen\u2019s team will test the gel\u2019s effectiveness in\u00a0large animal models, a key step before human clinical trials. Along with four other active NIH Research Project (RO1) grants funding Nguyen\u2019s work with piezoelectric biomaterials, the group hopes that the result of this project will successfully demonstrate that a single injection, followed by brief external ultrasound sessions, can significantly restore cartilage function in severe osteoarthritis cases.<\/p>\n

Nguyen\u2019s research is highly interdisciplinary and at the interface of biomaterials, nano\/micro-technology, and medicine. He credits the project\u2019s progress to a \u201cdeeply collaborative\u201d environment at UConn, where engineering and biomedical science intersect in innovative ways.<\/p>\n

The NIH\/NIBIB grant is the fourth grant Nguyen received in FY25. Others include: \u201cMAP Technology for Single-Admin and Co-Delivery of Polio and Other Vxs,\u201d supported by a $4M grant from the Gates Foundation; \u201cBionic Self-Charged Bone Composite Scaffold,\u201d supported by a $2.1 award from NIH\/NIBIB; and \u201cAdvancing Multi-bNAbs Microneedle Patch Technology For HIV-1 Prevention in Breastfeeding Infants,\u201d supported by a $1.5M grant from NIH\/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n

In addition, Nguyen served as the Materials Research Society\u2019s Early Career Distinguished Presenter at the organization\u2019s meeting in 2025. He spoke about his work on \u201cCurrent Advances of Biodegradable and Biocompatible nanofiber-based materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building hope for people who\u2019ve been told their only option is a joint replacement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Backed by a $2.3M grant from the NIH and NIH\/NIBIB, Thanh Nguyen will stimulate cartilage regeneration in large animal models<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":232054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2460,2231,2648,2076,2166,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2514],"class_list":["post-231932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-faculty","category-health-well-being","category-blue-research","category-research","category-sdm","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 04:06:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231932"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232168,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231932\/revisions\/232168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/232054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231932"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=231932"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=231932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}