Kugako Sugimoto, NOST Tokyo
Originally published on the site of NL Agency
Summary
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will provide a grant for the research to use iron beads and stem cells as a real medical treatment for the loss of bones and cartilages in the near future. Stem cells cultured with iron beads were injected on the wounded area (loss of bone or cartilage). Magnetic force were applied to the area to keep the stem cells attached to iron beads on the targeted area. Animal experiment showed good result of regeneration of lost bones. This will be the effective and less invasive treatment for the loss of bones and cartilages.
According to the announcement of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the research on regeneration of bones and cartilages by using magnetic power will be supported by the grant provided by MEXT to implement for the regeneration medicine.
Prof. Mituo Ochi of the Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Sciences of Hiroshima University has developed a minimum invasive surgery to regenerate bones and cartilages by injecting stem cells cultured with iron beads. Iron beads were incorporated to the stem cells duirng the incubation. The combining iron, magnetic force as a controller, injection, and stem cells are keys for the minimum invasive and effective surgery for the loss of bones or cartilages. Conventional treatment of regeneration of bones or cartilages was not able to keep the injected stem cells on the targeted sites (Fig.1).
Fig. 1. Image of cartilage with injected stem cells.
However, the method Professor Ochi developed kept staying the injected stem cells on the targeted area by magnetic attraction of the stem cells attaching to the iron beads. The size of the bead is 10 nm in diameter. The bead is currently widely used as contrast media for MRI. Injected iron beads in the body would become hemoglobin of the red blood cells to carry oxygen in the blood vessels and may not cause side effects on the patients. Animal experiment using pigs showed the successful regeneration of bones and cartilages by this method. The duration of the applying magnetic force during the surgery depends on the size of the targeted area, raining from 1 to 3 hours (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. The device (External magnetic field machine) to create magnetic force on the stem-cell-injected site.
Surgical treatment of loss of bones or cartilages sometimes employs placement of an artificial junction, which would be a huge stress for the patients. Since this regeneration technology does not need to open the wounded area of the patients, it can be repeated until getting satisfactory results with less stress.
To transfer this technology to the real medical treatment, safety test of the stem cells cultured with iron beads needs to be verified. However, the grant aims the implementation of the technology within 1 to 3 years.
Source:
Presentation material of Prof. Ochi for patent application
Hiroshima University, research now
