Dead Bones to Life
By Charles Q. Choi
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Cadaver bones can replace injured or diseased bone, but up to a third of these grafts fail because they cannot repair microscopic cracks from normal wear and tear, unlike living bone. Resurrecting dead bones could give patients an option to amputation. Molecular immunologist Edward Schwarz of the University of Rochester and his colleagues compared mice that had healthy and dead bone implants and found that living bone significantly expresses two genes involved in blood vessel growth and old bone reabsorption. The researchers incorporated these genes into a freeze-dried virus, which they coated onto dead femur bone grafts. The genes induced the body to supply blood to the dead bone, thereby revitalizing it. New bone formation did not occur uniformly on graft surfaces, but the team found other genes that might improve the approach's efficacy. The full discussion appears in the March Nature Medicine.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
