UNAIR NEWS – Bone is an organ that is important for humans, so if there is bone damage it will cause humans to suffer. One of the common bone damage is bone cancer (osteosarcoma), which is a malignant disease that attacks bone cells and some components of the bone.
On that issue, five students of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Universitas Airlangga conducted research and managed to find a material that is believed to improve the mechanical properties and accelerate the process of cell growth in the bone (osteoblasts). It was found on the shell of a snail (Achatina Fullica) which contains greater Chitosan than shrimp shells, crabs, and so forth.
The five FST students are Teky Putri Rahayu (2015), Ilham Nur Dimas Yahya (2013), Mohamad Heykal Putra Ardana (2013), Anissa Treby Marliandini (2015), and Laila Firdaus Zakiya (2015).
Under the guidance of their lecturer , Drs. Djony Izak Rudyardjo, M.Si., they have written their research as a proposal in Exacta Research Student Creativity Program (PKM- PE) entitled ” Utilization of Chitosan from Achatina Fullica Snail Shells for Production of Porous Bioceramics as Bone Filler On Bone Defects Due to Bone Cancer” . After going through a rigorous evaluation of Dikti, the proposal qualified to obtain funding from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education in 2017 PKM program.
Science and technology are growing rapidly and modern, stimulating people to innovate in facing the development of the times, including in the medical field associated with bone disease. To handle osteosarcoma, damage bone tissue rehabilitation can be done through cutting the cells with cancer through surgery, then continued with the provision of biomaterials that have similar characteristics of the bone.
Described by Mohamad Heykal Putra Ardana,on behalf of his team, the commonly used biomaterial is the bone filler which is the filler material into the damaged bone cavity. While the main ingredient of making the bone filler is hydroxyapatite with low mechanical properties, so to improve the properties additional material is needed.
“Chitosan is a material that is believed to increase the mechanical properties of the bone (osteoblasts) after bone cancer treatment,” said Heykal.
Heykal continued that chitosan is commonly found in animals with hard shells or skin. crusted. Snail shells selected because there is greater chitosan content than the shells of shrimp, crabs, and so forth.
Teky Putri Rahayu added, in making this material, several long stages are required. Snail shells that have been milled and become powder, then added with a certain solution for the existing content in the shell such as protein, minerals, and iron omitted and chitosan obtained.
This chitosan is then added to the bone filler for some tests, so the result of the bone filler that has been added chitosan is capable of having characteristic appropriate with medical standards, and it can be developed into biomaterial with excellent and optimal bone tissue recovery performance. (*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
