Researchers have found a new material that can help people regrow their fractured or damaged bones. This new development will definitely help many people who have suffered from trauma and fractured bones.
With regrowing of the bone of a mouse, the researchers have repaired a hole in a mouse's skull. This amazing breakthrough will hugely impact the medicine field. The "quality bone" that they were able to re-grow will help people who suffered from severe trauma to the skull or face, Northwestern University stated. The teams of Northwestern Engineering and University of Chicago researchers succeeded with their work. It has shown that everything is possible with the new technology developed.
The two teams were able to create a new part of the skull bone with only supporting blood vessels in the area it needed. It did not even have to develop a scar tissue. It was also faster than what they were previously using. "The results are very exciting," said Guillermo Ameer, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, and professor of surgery at Feinberg School of Medicine.
For the procedure, the researchers gathered skull cells from the mouse and engineered them to produce a potent protein that will encourage bone growth. After that, they used Ameer's hydrogel; it delivered and contained these cells to the affected area. Moreover, they used the calvaria or skull cells from the patient so it will not reject it. The best outcome of this was they get to know that the protein, BMP9, is the fastest to promote bone cell growth.
According to UPI, the method doctors and surgeons are using nowadays hurts very much. They graft bones from other parts of a patient's body. The procedure is not only painful but very hard especially when treating injuries and damage to the skull or facial bones.
China Scholarship Council, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Chicago Community Trust, and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, has supported the research. It was published last week in the journal PLOS One.
