Researchers Boost Body’s Ability to Heal Itself

A new study in the journal Regenerative Medicine describes how scientists were able to stimulate the self-repair response of rats in order to rebuild broken spines, IFLScience.com reports. 

Imperial College London researchers gave the rats in the study a combination of two different drugs – one typically administered during bone marrow transplants, and one used for bladder control. The combination of medications caused the rat’s bone marrow to produce an elevated number of stem cells that can develop bone tissue, speeding up the formation of new bone and healing the wounds. 

“The body repairs itself all the time. We know that when bones break, they will heal, and this requires the activation of stem cells in the bone,” study author Professor Sara Rankin said in a statement. “However, when the damage is severe, there are limits to what the body can do of its own accord. We hope that by using these existing medications to mobilize stem cells, as we were able to do in rats in our new study, we could potentially call up extra numbers of these stem cells, in order to boost our bodies own ability to mend itself and accelerate the repair process. Further down the line, our work could lead to new treatments to repair all types of bone fractures.” 

Researchers are hopeful that human trials will take place soon, as the drugs involved in this study are already widely used.