Creating new bone gives hope for craniofacial repair
What happens when the bones in the skull are damaged by trauma or a baby is born with insufficient bone to form a normal sized skull, as in the case of one in 2000 infants affected by craniosynostosis?
One of the major limitations to repairing the craniofacial skeleton is the availability of replacement bone. Bone can be harvested from other parts of the skeleton or from donors but these approaches have drawbacks and are limited by availability.
In children, availability of bone for grafting is even more limited and donor tissue increases the risk of infection.
The ideal solution currently being investigated by the craniofacial research group is creating replacement bone from the patient’s own cells. In a recent animal model study by the group, stem cells were added to biodegradable scaffold materials in the lab and allowed to attach for a few days before being surgically implanted.
“This study showed that using stem cells from the patient does allow us to generate new bone,” said Dr Peter Farlie, who led the research. “Our next step will be learning how to improve the spread and survival of the stem cells within the scaffold to improve the amount of bone that is made.”