Adult stem cells can offer a new treatment for the 10 to 20 percent of fractures that fail to heal.

“Lack of fracture repair often leads to several surgeries, long periods of immobilization, pain, bone deformities, and sometimes death. The precise reason why a patient’s fracture does not heal remains unknown in most cases,” said senior investigator Dr. Anna Spagnoli, of the University of North Carolina.

A deficiency in adult stem cells, which normally become reparative cells in response to damage, may be the main reason why broken bones sometimes fail to heal.

Spagnoli say that stem cells in human bone marrow, called mesenchymal stem cells, can become bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, and blood vessel cells, and directing these stem cells into the repair mode is one of the objectives of a new branch of medicine called regenerative medicine.

She adds that the adult stem cells, which can be obtained from a patient’s bone marrow in a minimally invasive procedure, have been reported to improve fracture healing in a few patients.

The stem cells migrated to the fracture site and increased the bone and cartilage that bridged the bone gap.

The use of adult stem cells would have several advantages over embryonic stem cells because they do not have the ethical controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cells, and they may avoid the immune rejection response, as the patient’s own cells can be used.