Two independent groups of researchers have made significant progress with regard to engineering bone in the laboratory. A team from Paris have reported that they can repair large bone lesions in sheep by implanting sea coral seeded with mesenchymal stem cells into the damaged tissue. For control, a coral implant without stem cells was given to another group. The researchers found that only the implants containing the stem cells were remodelled into what appeared to be mature bone and after four months the coral scaffold had almost disappeared. The other team, from the US, managed to grow small bone fragment within 24-48 hours by using osteogenic cells and transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF ß-1).
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Nature Biotechnolgy 2000;18:929-930,954-963
