Technocracy
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Using Stem Cells to Repair Bone Fractures
Nov 23, 2009
Nov 23, 2009
A team at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Medical Center has managed for the first time in the world to separate platelets and adult stem cells from the blood and bone marrow of patients with fractures and inject them - causing the bones to meld in a quarter to third of the time it usually takes to repair bones, and repairing some breaks that without the therapy would fail to heal at all.
Under regional or general anesthesia, the patient undergoes a short procedure to remove 50 milliliters of mesenchymal bone marrow cells and 100 milliliters of blood from the hip area, which is often done for bone-marrow transplants on certain cancer patients. Adult mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into a variety of cell types.
The patient is returned to the orthopedics department, while the cells and blood are taken to a lab approved for good manufacturing practice (GMP) and dedicated only for this purpose. Out of billions of bone marrow cells, millions of mesencymal stem cells were obtained, and platelets were taken from the blood. In principle, Liebergall said, any type of fracture that takes six to nine months to meld or doesn't heal at all can be treated with the technique, however, the team will wait to monitor patients until a year passes before regarding it as a full success or submitting a medical journal article.
Under regional or general anesthesia, the patient undergoes a short procedure to remove 50 milliliters of mesenchymal bone marrow cells and 100 milliliters of blood from the hip area, which is often done for bone-marrow transplants on certain cancer patients. Adult mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into a variety of cell types.
The patient is returned to the orthopedics department, while the cells and blood are taken to a lab approved for good manufacturing practice (GMP) and dedicated only for this purpose. Out of billions of bone marrow cells, millions of mesencymal stem cells were obtained, and platelets were taken from the blood. In principle, Liebergall said, any type of fracture that takes six to nine months to meld or doesn't heal at all can be treated with the technique, however, the team will wait to monitor patients until a year passes before regarding it as a full success or submitting a medical journal article.