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Stem cell capsules may help mend broken bones | French and Australian scientists have come up with a new way of delivering stem cells that could one day lead to a single injection to mend broken or diseased bones
and joints. "It is growth factor and stem cells in an injectable format. This
would be used wherever you would like to regenerate bone," ABC Science quoted
Dr Frank Caruso of the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University
of Melbourne, as saying. For medical scientists, bone and joint problems are particularly
challenging because bone cells sometimes don't heal themselves very well. That's
why researchers are exploring ways to effectively transplant stem cells that will
regenerate bones and joints. Caruso and colleagues have designed a capsule made
of synthetic polymers, which they have impregnated with growth factors that stimulate
the differentiation of stem cells into bone cells. He says the capsules are very
tiny - ranging from about 100 nanometres to tens of microns. The researchers have
then combined these capsules with embryonic stem cells in a matrix of alginate
gel. They injected the mixture into lab animals and showed they can stimulate
bone regrowth. Caruso says the development may lead to treatments in 5 to 10 year
if ongoing experiments prove positive. He says that the team plans to engineer
the capsule to control the release of the growth factors, which might otherwise
be quickly degraded by the body, avoiding the need for multiple injections. "The
aim is to have a one-dose therapy," he said. The findings have been published
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
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