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‘grow’ bone : Bath Scientists
:: 22 March, 2007
Damaged bones could one day be repaired using bone tissue grown in the laboratory, thanks to technology being developed through a new £310,000 grant to the University of Bath.
The technology, which uses stem cells taken from bone marrow, could one day help people whose bones have been damaged in severe accidents or suffer from diseases which attack the bone, such as osteoporosis and cancer.
Stem cells can be used in this way because they have yet to ‘differentiate’ into specialist cell types. Those stem cells found in bone marrow can develop into a number of different tissues, including bone, upon exposure to different cocktails of chemicals.
Unlike other so-called tissue engineering technologies, the research at Bath is focusing on a new technique which allows the bone tissue to self-assemble in a liquid, rather than using a polymer scaffold to grow them over.
This has the advantage over the scaffold method because the bone tissue forms more natural connections and can be used in a greater variety of different applications.
The cells are placed into a special rotating tube which contains the correct balance of chemicals and gases to encourage the formation of bone tissue.
As the cells come together, they aggregate to form small balls of connected bone tissue which can then be carved into shape and inserted into damaged or diseased bone to help the healing process.
The researchers have so far managed to produce clusters of cells that are around 2 mm in diameter, but through the new grant they hope to optimise their technology to produce spheres of bone cells, around 1cm in diameter, that will be more useful in medical applications.
“The cells can be encouraged to form tight links with each other, rapidly generating functional tissue to repair the damaged bone,” said Dr Paul De Bank from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology who will be leading the three year project.
“If successful, this kind of approach could give patients the kind of recovery that we have never been able to achieve in the past.
“Over the next year will work to optimise the process to produce the size and kind of spheres we need.
“Once this is achieved, we will be in a position to start thinking about what we need to do develop the technology for clinical applications in the future.”
The technology could also have uses in other areas, such as creating the tissue that forms organs, such as the lung, pancreas or neural tissue.
The research is funded by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council.
In 2007 the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology at the University of Bath celebrates 100 years of pharmacy education in Bath.
Meida contac:
Andrew McLaughlin
University Press Office
+44 (0)1225 386 883
+44 (0)7966 341 357
Release link: http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/2007/3/12/bone.html
