Stem cell injection may reverse osteoporosis in future

A single injection of stem cells may one day reverse the Type II form of osteoporosis, says exciting research in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

Osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people worldwide. Unlike post-menopausal (Type I) osteoporosis, women and men are equally susceptible to developing the age-related (Type II) form of this chronic disease.

Age-related osteoporosis affects the inner structure of the bone, leaving it thinner, less dense, with loss of function.

Prof William Stanford previously found there was a causal effect between mice that developed age-related osteoporosis and low or defective mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in these animals.

“We reasoned that if defective MSCs are responsible for osteoporosis, transplantation of healthy MSCs should be able to prevent or treat osteoporosis,” he explains.

To test that theory, researchers injected osteoporotic mice with MSCs from healthy mice. Six months after the injection the osteoporotic bone had given way to healthy, functional bone.

“We had hoped for a general increase in bone health,” says co-author Prof John E. Davies. “But the huge surprise was to find that the exquisite inner ‘coral-like’ architecture of the bone structure of the injected animals, which is severely compromised in osteoporosis, was restored to normal.”

The study could lead to new treatments or even a way of indefinitely postponing the onset of osteoporosis.

“It’s very exciting,” says Dr Jeff Kiernan who is involved in the work. “We’re conducting ancillary trials with a research group in the United States, where elderly patients have been injected with MSCs to study various outcomes.”

If improvements to bone health are observed in these studies, larger dedicated trials could follow in the next five years.

Click here to read the original research.

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