Osteoblasts for Osteoporosis and Non-Union Bone Fractures

Osteoporosis, or loss of bone density, is a common condition associated with aging and hormonal changes in post-menopausal women. In addition to skeletal deformities, back pain and loss of height, the disease causes over 1.5 million fractures per year in the United States alone. These fractures often occur after minimal trauma and if severe, as in hip fracture, carry mortality rates as high as 24% for patients age 50 and over. Nearly one in five hip fracture patients ends up in a nursing home. Total health care costs for osteoporosis and its complications are estimated at $18 billion per year in the United States.

The primary cause of the disease is metabolic bone loss (mediated by osteoclasts - cells which resorb bone) that is incompletely compensated by new bone formation (mediated by osteoblasts - cells which form new bone). Osteoblast activity declines over the human lifespan and fails to keep pace with the increasing activity of osteoclasts, resulting in progressive loss of bone density leading to fracture, pain and deformity.

We have made osteoblasts from hESCs and are now conducting preclinical tests in animals. If these preclinical tests are successful, we may test the cells in patients with non-union fractures (fractures of the long bones of the leg or arm that do not heal) or in patients with severe refractory osteoporosis.