UQ researchers in bone growth breakthrough

Australian research on sugars which stimulate stem cells to become bone tissue has resulted in a biological paste that promotes healing of fractures and breaks.

The ability to direct cell growth into new bone material would trim the time it takes to repair broken bones from years to months and decrease the incidence of fractures that refuse to heal.

A provisional patent on the technology has been granted and angel investors are being sought for further development of the work by a University of Queensland research team.

Their results are the product of 15 years of work on cellular growth by Assoc Prof Victor Nurcombe and Dr Simon Cool, now with UQ`s Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology in the School of Biomedical Sciences.

The researchers believe the concept of using sugars, originally isolated from embryonic brain cells, offers control over the development of stem cells into a wide range of differentiated tissues.

"We have applied them to liver, skin and bone marrow stem cells and they have strong effects on all of them," Nurcombe said.

They have recently isolated different sugar species from developing bone cells and found they have the capacity to guide naive adult stem cells into becoming bone.

Bone stem cells which placed in contact with these newly isolated, biologically-active sugars and vectored to a break or fracture will begin making new bone at the site.

They could be delivered to the site either in soluble form or arranged on a biodegradable scaffold in cases where a 3D structure is needed.

The sugar can be included in bone-bridging pastes to stimulate bone repair or regeneration, or it can be included in gels injected into fracture sites to activate cells and increase healing rates, according to the researchers.

Until now, the team has focused on adult stem cells and precursor cells. However agreement in principle has been reached to obtain embryonic stem cell lines from Monash University-associated ES Cell International, which would allow testing the technology on very early cells.

One of the positive aspects of the sugars is that they trigger growth factor interactions with cells but are not themselves growth factors, a plus in the eyes of the US regulator Food and Drug Agency (FDA).

The research team will continue its work as part of the recently-announced $55 million Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, a joint initiative between the university, the Queensland government and an overseas philanthropy.

Bone often weakens around the metal screws and plates which have conventionally been used to repair bone injuries. Bone tissue engineering is emerging as an exciting new technology to transform the use of such fixation devices.

Products which reliably induce new bone formation would have huge implications for health care, not least because they would minimise patient morbidity. They would reduce the need for revision surgery and length of hospital stays as well as costs to patients and the community.

Other applications of this orthobiologic technology include tooth repair, integration of prosthetic devices into bone, and even bioengineering to create bone in vitro.

UniQuest, UQ`s main technology commercialisation company, has recently lodged a provisional patent application for this technology. UniQuest managing director David Henderson said commercial partners were now being sought.

"The due diligence undertaken as part of the process that led to the lodging of the patent gave us strong grounds to believe that the bone tissue engineering technology is robust and well-positioned to answer a market demand," Henderson said.