Think of a colour and you’ll find it in a coral reef mixed into a busy pallet of pastels. Orange-striped Tiger fish explore shells with their powerful jaws. Alongside them swim playful and shy Clown fish. Coral reefs are beautiful and fascinating ecosystems, incredibly rare and precious.
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, housing tens of thousands of marine species. Over a third of all marine fish species live part of their lives on coral reefs.
It was whilst looking at porous coral in the South Pacific through the glass of his scuba mask, as he expelled bubbles of air that wobbled to the surface, that Pennsylvania State University professor Eugene White had a eureka moment.
You see back in the late 1980s bone grafts were traumatic procedures. To repair or replace missing bone due to a fracture, or worse, not one but two surgeries were required to transplant bone from one part of the body to another.
While diving Professor White was struck by the similarities between the spongy structure of bones and coral. Coral would make an excellent material for bone grafts, thought. It would also reduce the number of operations required and with it the risk of infection.
Coral’s structure matches tissue in human bones providing a trellis for bone to cling to and climb up. Over time it fills the tiny holes eventually replacing the coral, which is absorbed by the body. That’s the theory anyway. Sometimes the coral didn’t degrade resulting in problems from re-fracturing to infection. This stopped the procedure becoming main stream.
Recently Zhidao Xia, a lead researcher in coral bone grafting, and fellow researchers at Swansea University found a way to make coral more compatible with human bone. Using his technique 16 patients with bone defects healed four months after coral graft surgeries. Two years later the coral had naturally left the patients’ bodies.
Corals can also be used to treat cancer, arthritis, bacterial infections and even Alzheimer’s. They are quickly developing a reputation as the 21st-century’s medicine cabinets.
At Tropical World we have a variety of coral in the aquarium so next time you visit us don’t just walk past - stop and notice it!
Visit Tropical World to see our coral. Who knows what you might dream up!
