A new approach to bone regeneration is described in Scientific Reports today. University of Birmingham scientists say that they stimulated cells to produce extracellular vesicles that could then function as natural delivery vehicles capable of enhancing tissue regeneration.
The team says the findings mark the first step in a new direction for tissue regeneration with the potential to help repair bone, teeth, and cartilage.
Current bone regeneration approaches have significant limitations; autologous grafts cannot meet demand and cause patient morbidity, allogeneic bone lacks bioactive factors, and growth factor-based approaches may have serious side-effects and high costs.
According to the researchers, if extracellular vesicles are applied in combination with a simple phosphate the therapy outperforms the current gold standard, BMP-2.
"Though we can never fully mimic the complexity of vesicles produced by cells in nature, this work describes a new pathway harnessing natural developmental processes to facilitate hard tissue repair," explains Sophie Cox, from the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.