Artificial ligament, tissue engineering

SEM of an engineered ligament made in the laboratory. Ligaments are strong fibrous tissues which connect bones to each other for example at a joint. The engineered ligament (brown) has a portion of artificial bone cement (green) on either end which should help to integrate the artificial ligament into the body once implanted. The ligament is made from a fibrin hydrogel, a water based gel containing fibrin and fibroblast cells which deposit collagen around a scaffold to make the artificial tissue. The bone cement is made from a calcium phosphate based material (brushite). Half of the ligament is shown here. It has been false coloured to resemble a tree and symbolise tissue engineering as a new branch of science that is beginning to make progress in the treatment of a variety of disorders. Horizontal width of image is approximately 4 mm.