Bone fractures in horses occur through traumatic injuries and bone overloading. | Photo: Courtesy Dr. Leo Jeffcott

Scientists from the Animal Health Trust (AHT), in Newmarket, U.K., and the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, U.K., have made 3-D-printed scaffolds that can be used to turn induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into bone in the laboratory.

“iPS cells are created by ‘reprogramming’ an adult cell, such as a skin cell, to turn back into a stem cell state, where they can grow forever in the lab and turn into any cell type of the body,” said Debbie Guest, PhD, head of stem cell research at the AHT. “They could, therefore, produce a wide variety of cells to help replace injured and damaged tissues in regenerative medicine approaches.”

Bone fractures in horses occur through traumatic injuries and bone overloading. Severe fractures can be difficult to treat due to a horse’s need to bear weight on all four limbs. Surgical approaches to fracture repair in horses are constantly improving. In human medicine, doctors often use bone grafting to help repair the fracture site. However, this harvesting of bone from other sites can have catastrophic consequences and, thus, is not commonly used in horses