Scientists have grown human bone from the stem cells in a laboratory.
This wonderful achievement of giving birth to new bones opens the way for patients broken bones to get repaired or even replacing it by new bone formed from the patient’s own cell.
The researchers started with stem cells taken from fat tissue. It took around a month to produce a fully formed living human bone up to a couple of inches long. This first trial on patients was going to be conducted by a biotechnology company later this year.
According to the research, the doctors can grow these bones outside the body, and then transplanted at the right time on the examined patient.
Stem cells, known as mesenchymal stem cells, which have the capacity to develop into many other types of cell in the body, are obtained from the patient’s fat using liposuction.
These are then grown into living bone on the scaffold inside a “bioreactor” – an automated machine that provides the right conditions to encourage the cells to develop into bone.
This research gives a permanent solution to all type of bone injuries in future.