Mussel ‘Glue’ May Aid Bone Injury Treatment

The adhesive that holds mussels to rocks in the face of battering by waves and ocean currents may aid the repair of knee and hip injuries, according to John Fulkerson, a University of Connecticut orthopedic surgeon who has spent the summer studying mussels at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

In lab experiments, the mussel glue seems to enhance the ability of soft bone cells to grow on a metal alloy that is used to make artificial hip joints, suggesting that the substance can be used to strengthen the bond between bones and metal replacement parts, he said.

Fulkerson said it may be possible to use the glue to attach living bone cells from a patient to an artificial joint implantation so that the cells attached to the joint could grow and eventually fuse with the leg bone.

Among the advantages of the glue is that it sets underwater, even in the corrosive environment of salt water, which is similar to the environment in the human body. Initial studies show that the mussel adhesive is nontoxic and does not elicit an immune response that often presages rejection.

The adhesive is extracted from a tiny organ in the interior of edible blue mussels collected in Maine. Other marine organisms do not store the glue in such a way that it can be extracted, according to Fulkerson.

The substance, he said, may also be useful in some forms of dental work.