Circulating Blood May Help Generate Bone
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, JULY 28, 2009
A new study published in the journal Stem Cells found that circulating blood may hold the potential to generate bone. Scientists evaluated blood samples from patients with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP, a rare genetic disorder where bone forms outside the skeleton), which were found to contain bone-forming cells derived from bone marrow. Researchers were then able to show that those same cells were present at the site of ossification, confirming that the cells were able to circulate and seed outside the skeleton.
These special cells are called circulating osteogenic precursor (COP) cells, and they have been determined to be similar to bone-marrow-derived white blood cells. The effects of these cells were studied in a mouse model. After the cells were delivered to the mice, histological samples showed hard-tissue-containing osteoctyes and bone-lining cells at eight weeks.
This discovery is relevant not only to FOP patients, but to a number of conditions where surgery or trauma appears to trigger new bone growth: end-stage aortic valve disease, after head and spinal cord injury, after hip and knee replacements and in cases of severe trauma, such as blast injuries seen in soldiers. These findings might also have applications for generating new bone in cases where bone is scarce or of poor quality.
