Fat and muscle turned into bone, cartilage in rodents
June 27th, 2010 - 1:54 pm ICT by ANILondon, June 27 (ANI): In what is being considered as a major breakthrough, scientists at Harvard Medical School, Boston, have regrown bone and cartilage from fat cells and muscle tissue and then implanting them at the site of the injury.
The researchers achieved the feat of converting muscle and fat cells into cartilage and then bone in rodents by using a special form of gene therapy.
It is hoped the technology could dramatically cut the amount of time patients have to spend in traction after breaking bones and could help improve recovery from cartilage damage such as occurs in knee injuries.
Tests in rats showed that the implanted muscle and fat rapidly caused a bridge to form between broken bones within days.
The bones were found to have returned to full strength within 8 weeks of the injury. It can typically take broken bones in humans several months to heal.
“Further development of these methods should provide ways to heal bone and cartilage more expeditiously, and at lower cost, that is presently possible,” the Telegraph quoted Professor Chris Evans, from the centre for molecular orthopaedics at Harvard Medical School, as saying.
“Those receiving gene-activated muscle underwent rapid healing, with evidence of bridging as early as 10 days after implantation and restoration of full strength by eight weeks,” he added.
Evans and his colleagues are due to present some of their findings at the European Cells and Materials Conference in Davos, Switzerland this week.
The study appears in the journal of European Cells and Materials. (ANI)
- Surgeons conduct north India's first cartilage transplant - Nov 13, 2011
- Rare disease 'paves way for creating stem cells' - Nov 22, 2010
- Cell therapy for athletic injuries - Oct 05, 2011
- Focus on cartilage injuries at India meet - Nov 13, 2011
- Researchers find new way to repair damaged heart - Dec 10, 2010
- Arthritis can hit even the physically active (World Arthritis Day Oct 12) - Oct 11, 2010
- Cartilage graft will help regenerate bone - Feb 16, 2012
- Adult stem cells offer new treatment for fractures that fail to heal - Oct 05, 2009
- Human stem cells from fat tissue successfully fuse with rat heart cells and beat - Mar 01, 2011
- Shockwaves can heal broken bones - Jun 26, 2011
- Patients can "regrow their knee" in lab - Jun 04, 2010
- Titanium foam implants to revolutionize bone injury treatments - Sep 23, 2010
- Existing osteoporosis drug may keep joint injuries from causing long-term osteoarthritis - Sep 13, 2009
- Emerging techniques show promise to repair injured ankle - Jul 02, 2009
- Bone-like material created with 3D printer - Dec 01, 2011
Tags: amount of time, breaking bones, broken bones, cartilage damage, chris evans, davos switzerland, fat cells, full strength, further development, gene therapy, harvard medical school, harvard medical school boston, implantation, knee injuries, materials conference, muscle tissue, orthopaedics, professor chris, rodents, time patients