Turn fat into bone

Making bones from fat is a strange idea for everyone, including writers who have written science fiction novels, but researchers in Israel have made it a reality.

Scientists from Israel's Technion Research Institute and Bonus BioGroup get their mesenchymal stem cells (mesenchymal) from human fat. They put the cell into the 'bioreactor' - a machine that has enough conditions for mesenchymal stem cells to grow into bone, Telegraph reported.

Professor Avinoam Kadouri, team leader of the Scientific Bonus Group of Bonus BioGroup, said he and his colleagues are looking to create soft cartilage at the bone tip. If soft cartilage is created, the team can 'produce' complete bone fragments in the laboratory.

A piece of bone created by Israeli scientists
from fat in the lab. (Photo: Telegraph)

The achievements of Israeli scientists will open new directions in treating broken bones. In order to restore someone's bones, doctors now have to take bones from elsewhere in the patient's body and place them in the damaged positions. In many cases, doctors have to remove bones from other bodies, but they are often eliminated by the patient's body. The technique of Israeli scientists creates bone from the patient's own stem cells so the new bone will not be rejected by the body. Even a doctor can replace a person's entire skeleton with the 'produced' skeleton from his own stem cell.

Artificial bone implant techniques have been successfully applied on animal bodies. In a recent test, scientists inserted a 25-inch-long artificial human bone into the middle of the mouse's leg bone. The bone segment has successfully "merged" with the bones of mice.

Many groups of experts around the world are studying stem cell bone regeneration techniques. However, most scientists implant stem cells into the patient's body and not nourish them outside the patient's body so they become bone.