New stem cell studies at the University of Maryland Dental School demonstrate that surgeons could one day routinely use strong, moldable, and injectable pastes to regenerate needed bone tissue to repair broken bones, fractures, genetic defects, even combat bone wounds.

The Dental School presentation showed that human stem cells seeded in tissue engineering scaffolding exhibited “excellent attachment and osteogenic differentiation,” which is the process of laying down new bone material.

The researchers said the new findings buoy hopes that an injectable paste of stem cells will be available one day to fill any shape of cavity from bone defects, breaks or wounds by regenerating needed bone tissue.

Stem cells from bone marrow, when placed into an injectable scaffold of calcium phosphate and chitosan, started growing and forming minerals needed for new bone tissue.

Xu, an associate professor from the Maryland Stem Cell Research added that such a product could also be used in periodontal bone repair, mandibular and maxillary ridge augmentation, reconstruction of frontal sinus and craniofacial skeletal defects, and other stress-bearing orthopedic applications. After a tumor removal or traffic accident, there may be a need to repair the damage or void left.

The researchers have recorded similar success with umbilical cord-derived stem cells, which “appear to be more potent in terms of growth and transforming into osteoblasts on the scaffold than the cells from bone marrow,” said Xu. It is likely that the umbilical cord cells are more vital because they are younger than stem cells obtained from the adult bone marrow and in theory will act more quickly to repair wounds or bone defects.

“The promise of encapsulating umbilical cord stem cells in an injectable scaffold for stem cell delivery and bone regeneration.” Xu said. “Our research is still in an early stage. We will perform more systematic investigations and animal studies. If indeed human umbilical cord stem cells delivered using injectable scaffolds are more effective in bone regeneration than the commonly studied bone marrow stem cells, it will broadly impact the field of stem cell-based regenerative medicine and hope for repair of bone defects with paste of stem cells.