Osteoblast cell injections may speed up fracture healing

Washington, Feb 12 (ANI): Osteoblast cell obtained from a patient's own bone marrow can help quicken the healing of a long bone fracture, according to a new study.

Dr Seok-Jung Kim from the Catholic University College of Medicine, Seoul, involved 64 patients in their study, of which 31 were given the 'Osteoblast' treatment and 33 left to recover the normal way.

The researchers observed that the patients injected with the 'osteoblast cell' healed faster that the normally treated ones.

"The cultured osteoblast injection group showed fracture healing acceleration of statistical significance, and there were no specific patient complications when using this treatment. Cultured osteoblast injection should therefore be considered as a successful treatment option for long-bone fracture," Dr. Kim said.

"There was significantly more bone growth in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Autologous cultured osteoblast transplant is a safe and effective method for accelerating the rate of fracture healing," he added.

Dr. Kim points out that the bone union process is often left to natural healing, and such cases are generally so delayed that they eventually need bone transplants.

The researcher says that 'Osteoblast cell' injections can prove beneficial in such cases.

"Time has increasingly become the most important factor in clinical decision-making. While fractures generally will eventually heal, bone union can frequently be delayed to the extent that it requires bone transplantation. Not only does this cause psychological and physical pain to the individual patient, it's also not economically viable," Dr. Kim said.

"Although bone transplant remains the most effective method of bone union, osteoblast injections provide an alternative which can be performed under local anesthesia with no requirement for surgery," Dr. Kim added.

The study has been published in the open access journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. (ANI)