Hyperelastic bone: a flexible 3-D printed scaffold designed to repair broken or damaged bone.

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"Hyperelastic bones" don't impart Stretch Armstrong abilities, but they could give surgeons a quick, less expensive way to repair bone breaks. Created by Ramille Shah, a materials science engineer at Northwestern University's medical campus in Chicago, and colleagues, the new, superflexible scaffold can be 3-D printed into femurs, skullcaps and other bone shapes.

The durable material is a mix of an elastic polymer plus hydroxyapatite, a calcium mineral found in human bones and teeth. Once implanted, the material's mineral makeup encourages real bone to start growing within a month to replace the scaffold, the team reports in the Sept. 28 Science Translational Medicine.

So far, the "bones" have been tested only in animals. In rats, spinal implants stimulated tissue and bone growth just as well as natural grafts.

In a macaque with skull damage, an implant almost seamlessly integrated with the monkey's natural skull tissue within a month. The material is malleable, so surgeons can fix it in place without glue or sutures, Shah says.--Cassie Martin

Caption: New 3-D printed bone scaffolds, such as this one of human vertebrae, may speed up tissue healing, researchers say.

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