HEALTH NEWS
HEALTH NEWS
WORDS: JENNIFER BOZON. IMAGES: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
BABY BOOM FOR BONES
Scientists have discovered that cells in the amniotic fluid that protects a developing baby and allows it to grow can revive weak and ageing bones. The research team at the Institute of Child Health carried out the study on mice, injecting diseased mice the with amniotic stem cells from material left over from screening tests during pregnancy or collected immediately before birth. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, showed cells in the fluid strengthened bone and cut fractures by 80 per cent. The stem cells were able to strengthen the bone by releasing growth factors that made the existing bone cells in the mice multiply and more effectively mature. The animals had brittle bone disease or osteogenesis imperfecta – a condition that, in people, can be fatal, affecting around one in every 25,000 births. Researchers said the finding has raised hopes for treating babies with brittle bone disease from birth, but also older people with osteoporosis, and astronauts who lose bone mass in orbit.