In a breakthrough study, a team of scientists from China have been able to successfully allow hydrogen absorption for bone repair. For quite some time now, scientists around the world have known that hydrogen, which is the lightest and simplest of the elements, has anti-inflammatory properties that can help with cell repair. What makes hydrogen so special is its ability to eliminate the toxic radicals associated with ageing. Hydrogen has a universal anti-senescence impact on various cells and tissues, meaning that it helps them heal and grow. However, researchers have been struggling to devise ways in which the body could sufficiently absorb hydrogen molecules in a way that shows therapeutic effect.
Earlier this week, the South China Morning Post shared that Chinese scientists have developed a “scaffold implant that delivers hydrogen 40,000 times more efficiently than other methods – such as drinking hydrogen-rich water or inhaling hydrogen gas.” As a result, one gets a sustained release of hydrogen for seven to nine days.
This scaffold implant was tested on 24-month-old mice, which is equivalent to 70-year-old humans. The mice had femoral bone defects and the hydrogen released by the implant helped in repairing the bone health in mice. Now scientists are hopeful that this impact can work on humans as well.
This breakthrough study was published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed journal. He Qianjun, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who worked on the research and is the co-author of the study titled, “Local H2 release remodels senescence microenvironment for improved repair of injured bone” told the South China Morning Post that even though the scaffold implant was initially build to repair bone defects in the elderly, they are hopeful that one day these could be used to treat age-related conditions and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“We developed the method mainly based on our discovery of the broad-spectrum anti-ageing properties of hydrogen. The scaffold had a significant effect in inducing bone growth compared to the blank scaffold that does not produce hydrogen,” He Qianjun said.
The researcher mentioned that his team’s next challenge is to create a scaffold that offers a longer period of hydrogen release. He Qianjun said, “We believe that continuous hydrogen supply will be a universal anti-ageing technology that can treat various ageing-related diseases, including preventing and treating diseases like Alzheimer’s.”