Biomedical Uses of Cuttlefish bone or Cuttlebone

A team of researchers at Kaunas Technical University has foundmany creative uses for cuttlefish bone, previously known as a biologically active substance that has bone and wound healing benefits.Cuttlefish bonecontains a natural bone implant that is used to treat hemorrhoids as well as to make topical gels that heal wounds.

Although cuttlefish bone has been used for various purposes in Chinese and Indian medicine, but its properties and uses are still not understood in modern medicine.

More than 90% of cuttlefish bone is made of calcium carbonate but what makes it so valuable is that cuttlefish bone is also made of aragonite, beta-chitin, and high amounts of various non-organic biological elements such as magnesium, strontium, iron, and even elements such as copper and zinc. Cuttlefish bone has a good amount of all these elements. All of these elements are combined. These elements increase the bioactivity of biomedical products that contain cuttlefish bone.For example, Kaunas researchers used cellulose-based scaffolds combined with cuttlefish bone and calcium alginate capsules for small bone defects in the oral cavity in for oral surgery purposes.The scaffold is biodegradable and will gradually disappear after providing the necessary mechanical support to improve bone defects.

In addition to the alginate capsule,the cuttlefish bone in the scaffold provides the necessary support for the reproduction of osteoblasts, causing these bone cells to heal the wounded area better by growing and building more bones. Another compound produced by Kaunas researchers is a cuttlefish bone gel that is compound-based and it can be used to treat minor wounds or to produce suppositories for hemorrhoids. There is also a protein known as tropomyosin In cuttlefish bone that causes allergy in people.To remove the protein, the researchers first used alkaline hydrolysis, but the combination caused changes in the organic composition of cuttlefish bone, so in an order to find another way, they found that only the area on the back of the bone has this protein. Researches also found that the abdomen of the cuttlefish bone can be used to make the desired gel or scaffolding which results in the lowest rates of allergic reactions.