Living Bone Grown in Lab to Boost Cure For Facial Defects

                In a first, scientists have grown a living bone in the lab to repair large defect in the head and face of patient, taking a step forward in improving treatments for people with craniofacial defects. A new technique developed, uses autologous stem cells derived from a small sample of the recipient’s far and replicates the original anatomical structures of the bone. The researchers have been able to show, in a clinical-size porcine model of jaw repair, that this bone, grown in vitro and then implanted, can seamlessly regenerate a large defect while providing mechanical function. The quality of the regenerated tissue, including vascularisation with blood perfusion, exceeds what has been achieved using other approaches. Researchers fabricated a scaffold and bioreactor chamber based on images of the jaw defect, to provide and anatomical fit. The scaffold they built enabled bone formation without the use of growth factors, and also provided mechanical function. They then isolated the recipient’s own stem cells form a small fat aspirate and, in just three weeks, formed the bone within a scaffold made from bone matrix, in a custom-designed per-fused bioreactor.