Adipose cells, commonly known as fat, could be a useful source of stem cells to promote bone growth in spinal fusion, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.
Stem cells, taken from a patient's marrow and developed into bone cells, can lead to successful outcomes in spinal fusion, a complex procedure that fails up to one in five times, according to researchers.
But the aspiration (removal) method for extracting stem cells from marrow has a risk of infection and is often painful.
In spinal fusions on rat models, newly isolated stem cells from fat were just as effective as bone marrow stem cells, according to the study published in the May edition of Spine. Most patients have an adequate supply of fat cells, which is seen as a "logical alternative to bone marrow cells" by researchers.
"Bone marrow stem cells are isolated in human patients from the hip," said Christina Holmes, PhD, one of the lead researchers. "But using a huge needle to take out bone marrow is a painful procedure, and we can only get a limited number of cells, so we've found an alternative source by using stem cells from fat."
Results of the study suggest that the same results could be achieved in human clinical trials.
The next step for researchers is to identify which cells are the most beneficial for spinal fusions, and then characterize them.
Click here for more details on the study.