Soil fungus forms durable hydrogels with potential for biomedical materials

Mushrooms are vital for natural ecosystems, breaking dead organic material and a bicycle from the environment into the environment as nutrients. But the new study of the University of Utah discovers that one type, Marquandomyces Marquandii, ubiquitous soil mold, demonstrates a promise as a potential construction block for new biomedical materials.

In recent years, scientists have studied fungal mycelium, a network of root threads-gifs-wheezing penetrate soils, wood and other nutrient substrates, in search of materials with structural properties that can be useful for human purposes, especially construction.

In a series of laboratory demonstrations, researchers from mechanical engineering U show that M. Marquandii can turn into hydrogels, materials that contain a lot of water and imitate the softness and flexibility of human tissues, According to a recent study Published in Let'sField

Unlike other mushrooms that fight Water delay And durability, M. Marquandii produces thick multi -layer hydrogels, which can absorb up to 83% of water and bounce back after stretching or stress, according to the ATUL AGRAWAL, leading the author of the study. These properties make him a good candidate for biomedical goals, such as tissue regeneration, frames for growing cells or even flexible, wearable devices.

“What you see here is a hydrogel with multi -layer,” said the agrav, holding a glass flask with a fungal colony growing in a yellowish liquid environment. “This can be seen with the naked eye, and these multiple layers have different porosity. Thus, the upper layer has about 40% porosity, and then there are alternating stripes of 90% porosity and 70% porosity. ”

Looking for nature for innovative materials

Agrav – Doctor of Philosophy. Candidate for Engineering College John and Marcia Price. His article is the last, which appeared from the laboratory of the senior author Stephen Nalesa, the associate professor of the department of mechanical engineering, which explores biological substances for the development of materials devoted to bio -inducers with structural and Medical applicationsField

AGRAWAL and NALEWAY are looking for Patent protection For their discoveries about the mushroom Marquandomyces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzs52qyslcc

“This, in particular, was able to grow these large, muscular mycelial layers that interest us. Mycelium is made mainly from chitin, which looks like in the shells and exoskeletons of insects. This is biocompatible, but also this very thick fabric, ”said Nadei. “Theoretically, you can use it as a template for biomedical applications, or you can try to mineralize it and create bone frames.”

Mushrooms make up their own kingdom of organisms, from about 2.2 to 3.8 million species, and only 4% were characterized by scientists. For decades, scientists came from mushrooms of numerous pharmacological substances, from penicillin to LSD. Naleway is one of the cohorts of engineers who are now looking for fungal microstructures for potential use on other arenas.

Why fungal mycelia have interesting mechanical properties

In collaboration with the U -Micologist Brin Dantteringer, the Naleway laboratory produced a number of papers documenting the potentially useful structural properties of various types of mushrooms. One of them described how Mushrooms that grow short gifs are tougher than those that grow longer than the gifs. Another catalog of various ways Krony fungi High relations to weight to weight Make them a viable alternative in various applications, including aerospace and agriculture.

How fungal gifs grow is the reason why mycelium can have useful structural properties.

“When they grow forward, they lay these transverse walls, which then share a really long thread in many, many Separate cells– said Danger, Associate Professor of Biology and the curator in the Museum of the Natural History of Utah. “They will grow forever, while there is enough around the diet.” There is no stage of development where they will stop. This is a fundamentally different strategy of life in the environment than animals. ”

Mushrooms have evolved multicellularity in such a way that are very different from what we see in animals and plants in which cells are differentiated and usually remain in differentiated conditions.

“In mushrooms, each cell is able to differentiate, and then return to the original state. They are simply much more malleable and adapted, ”Danger said. “So there are many that we could use from this behavior that really was not fully investigated.”

Casual accidents can fuel detection

Like many discoveries associated with mushrooms, hydrogel experiments arose as a result of a happy accident. Initially, the group conducted studies that, in their opinion, was an organism feeding on hydrocarbons, usually called a “kerosene fungus”, known for pollution of aviation fuel.

But as their culture grew, scientists noticed that they behave unexpectedly, grow in strange layers. Dentinger correctly identified the mysterious mushroom as Marquandomyces.

“This emphasizes the state of mycology, because we have a pen only on such a small share of mushrooms,” Danger said. “In the collections of cultures and even in the collections of Herbarium there are a lot of incorrect identification. Incorrect identification of something is only part of the game. And that is why I am connected with this work with Stephen. ”

During the study, the team found that these mycelial crops showed an unusually high degree of hydrophilia, retaining 83% of water, without losing their shape.

“What was interesting in our study is that the mushroom itself created a full-scale structure that was very organized,” said agrav. Marquandomyces surpassed materials made from more often studied mushroomsSuch as ganoderma and pleuria, species that demonstrate restrictions when holding water, limiting their use in biomedicine systems based on hydrogels.

In laboratory experiments, the agrav team found that the material can restore 93% of its shape and strength after repeated stress.

“In order for it to restrain this structure together, all this colony of mycelium is connected together, and what we saw using optical visualization lies in the fact that inside these layers at the place of transition this is a functionally evaluated structure,” said agrav. “This helps to distribute the concentration of the voltage between the layers. Therefore, when we use mechanical voltage, it distributes this voltage evenly and helps with the mechanical characteristics of these hydrogels. ”