Home-grown Bone

Today, replacing damaged bones with ones grown in a lab is already a reality. Scientists can grow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the patient’s bone marrow on a porous ceramic scaffold, as shown in this scanning electron microscope image, and attach it to their healthy bone. However, MSCs can also turn into muscle or fat cells, so it’s vital to ensure that they turn, or differentiate, into bone cells. The ceramic scaffold plays an important role in this: like the supporting scaffold of real bone, it contains calcium which induces MSCs to differentiate into bone cells rather than muscle or fat. Researchers are studying how calcium does this, by finding out which genes were activated at various times after the MSCs were placed on the scaffold. This will help test new scaffolds, with different shapes or components, for how effective they are at helping the cells differentiate.

Written by Esther Redhouse White

Esther Redhouse White

Writer

A recent Biochemistry graduate from York, Esther has worked on bacterial killing proteins and genetic switches in worms. In her spare time she likes visiting museums full of skeletons.

• Image from work by Federica Viti and colleagues
• Institute of Electronics, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering, National Research Council, Genoa, Italy
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS One, February 2016