Implants make light work of fixing broken bones
Artificial bone, created using stem cells and a new lightweight plastic, could soon be used to heal shattered limbs.
The use of bone stem cells combined with a degradable rigid material that inserts into broken bones and encourages real bone to re-grow has been developed at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton.
Researchers have developed the material with a honeycomb scaffold structure that allows blood to flow through it, enabling stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow to attach to the material and grow new bone. Over time, the plastic slowly degrades as the implant is replaced by newly grown bone.
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