Repair Ribs

Anyone who's ever broken a leg knows bones tend to heal painfully slowly. Except, that is, for ribs, which have an uncanny knack for rapid repair. Researchers are keen to see if they can understand this unique talent and apply its secrets to other bones. Previous studies suggested that it's the connective tissue around ribs that enables the recovery, and a new study confirmed that 6% of these cells are critical to the process. A particular molecule, called Hedgehog, gives them the signal to kick start repair, and when this signal was removed, injured mouse ribs didn’t heal like normal. A closer look showed these cells encouraging the production of special bone-healing tissue with cells expressing genes normally linked with both cartilage (in green) and bone (pink). The next question is whether this unique method of recovery support could be provided to other parts of the body, too.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Stephanie T. Kuwahara and colleagues
• Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image provided, and copyright held, by the authors
• Research published in eLife, April 2019