A new experimental stem cell treatment may lead to a cure for osteoporosis. Details of the new technique were published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine last week.
Researchers from the University of Toronto discovered the experimental stem cell treatment after many months of research. They believe it can rebuild the bones of people who suffer from osteoporosis and similar conditions.
It is estimated that osteoporosis affects more than 200 million women worldwide. It is a debilitating condition that causes back pain, poor posture, a loss of height and bone thinning. It primarily affects older people and often contributes to bone fractures or breaks in elderly people when they have a fall.
This new experimental stem cell treatment attempts to repair bones with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs are multipotent cells which can differentiate into a number of other cell types — including osteoblasts (bone cells).
The researchers found that people with osteoporosis often had faulty MSCs. An injection of healthy MSCs could restore their ability to regrow healthy bone cells. They tested the procedure successfully on mice.
One of the researchers, John E. Davies, said of the findings: “We had hoped for a general increase in bone health. But the huge surprise was to find that the exquisite inner ‘coral-like’ architecture of the bone structure of the injected animals, which is severely compromised in osteoporosis, was restored to normal.”
The researchers hope that the findings could lead to a new method for treating osteoporosis, or delaying its onset indefinitely.
Source: Experimental Stem Cell Treatment Reverses Osteoporosis
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