Bone Regeneration Trials
News-Medical.Net passes along results of a trial for another first generation stem cell therapy. It's a clear improvement over presently widespread procedures for repairing bone injuries. The trial "involved 10 patients with leg fractures which refused to heal ... All the patients have apparently new bone formation and seven patients have achieved union of their long bone defects within an average of 4.9 months; three others continue to show progressive new bone formation. Before the stem cell implantation none of the 10 had shown any evidence of new bone formation for 5 to 41 months; the seven with the successful long bone union have been able to fully weight bear and resume daily activities. ... The study found there was a direct relationship between increasing the dose of stem cells implanted and shortening the time to heal the bony defect, which the researchers say indicates that the stem cells work in a similar way to a pharmaceutical drug."