“Latest Stem Cells News”

Broken bones in humans and animals are painful and often take months to heal. Studies conducted in part by University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center researchers show promise to significantly shorten the healing time and revolutionize the course of fracture treatment.

“Complex fractures are a major cause of amputation of limbs for U.S. military men and women,” said Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, animal and dairy scientist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center.

“For many young soldiers, their mental health becomes a real issue when they are confined to a bed for three to six months after an injury,” he said. “This discovery may allow them to be up and moving as fast as days afterward.”

Stice is working with Dr. John Peroni to develop a fast bone healing process. “This process addresses both human and veterinary orthopedic needs,” said Peroni, an associate professor of large animal surgery in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the RBC.

Peroni and Stice are leading a large animal research project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The project includes scientists and surgeons from the Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and the University of Texas, who conducted the early studies.

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Stem Cell Research Yields Benefits for Broken Bones

Stem Cell researchers have discovered that a drug for osteoporosis actually has a positive side effect- it can speed up the healing of bone fractures or broken bones by stimulating the patient’s own Adult Stem Cells.

Teriparatide- Now a Stem Cell Drug

The drug is called teriparatide (Forteo) and it is a “fragment of parathyroid hormone that contains 34 amino acids rather than the 84 found in the naturally occurring substance.”

Adult Stem Cell Research Results for Unhealed Bone Fractures

From the stem cell article:

In an observational study of 145 patients with slow-to-heal fractures, 93% had complete recovery within 12 weeks of starting treatment with teriparatide (Forteo), according to Susan Bukata, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y.

Within 12 weeks of starting treatment, 141 of the 145 patients no longer had pain at the fracture site, 135 had radiographic and clinical union of their fractures, and six had partial union of their fractures that clinically functioned as a healed fracture.

Only four had no improvement in pain or fracture union.

93%? Not bad.

You can find the full research paper on healing fractures here

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