HEALTH ISSUE: Healing Of Broken Bones

Now, a jab to mend broken bones

        LONDON: Scientists have found a novel way to significantly speed up the healing of broken bones in mice, a feat which, if replicated in humans, could mean people with fractures would be free of their casts a lot sooner.

           Jill Helms, Roel Nusse and team at Stanford University in California drilled small holes into the shin bones of mice, and injected them with Wnt proteins. These proteins prompt bone stem cells to divide. Three days later, bone growth was three times greater than in mice injected with a placebo. The approach could prove to be better than adding new stem cells, which can divide uncontrollably. According to Thomas Einhorn, a Boston University biochemist, Wnt is an alluring therapeutic target. Malfunctions have been linked to human bone disorders, underscoring their importance.