NanoSapiens » Reuters

U.S. nuclear front-runners begin to slow spending

Reuters: Science News — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:36:28 +0000

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Study changes picture of U.S. quake hazards

Reuters: Science News — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:01:21 +0000

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Rabbits grow their own joint replacements in study

Reuters: Science News — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:15:49 +0000

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON |
Thu Jul 29, 2010 1:15pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rabbits implanted with artificial bones re-grew their own joints, complete with cartilage, researchers reported on Thursday.

Only a single compound called a growth factor was needed to induce the rabbits’ bodies to remodel the joint tissue, said the team at Columbia University in New York, Clemson University in South Carolina and the University of Missouri.

Such a joint should last longer and work more naturally than a metal joint, the researchers said.

Companies involved in making replacement joints and regenerative medicine are expressing interest, said Columbia’s Jeremy Mao, who led the study.

“All the tissue was formed by stem cells from the host,” Mao said in a telephone interview.

Writing in the Lancet medical journal, the researchers said they set out to make an artificial joint using a biomaterial made out of polycaprolactone and hydroxyapatite. “It is U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved to use the materials for bone regeneration,” Mao said.

They replicated a rabbit’s leg joint using a laser to calibrate the structure. They infused this porous bone scaffold with a growth factor — a compound that stimulates cells to grow. In this case it was transforming growth factor beta-3.

Ten rabbits fitted with the enriched new joint were hopping around within three to four weeks. Only a few of the 10 rabbits fitted with an unenriched scaffold could move normally, and three rabbits whose joint was surgically damaged and not repaired limped permanently.

“It was a surprise finding,” Mao said. They expected it would take more work to get the body to coat the artificial bone with fresh cartilage.

YOUR OWN JOINT

The technique could benefit patients with advanced arthritis. “At this the whole joint really has undergone substantial breakdown,” Mao said.

Metal joints only last 10-15 years but this type should last longer, he said. “It’s your own joint. It is the joint you made the second time around,” he said.

The Arthritis Foundation says 27 million people in the United States alone have osteoarthritis. “As we age, if we live long enough, pretty much half of us will get arthritis,” Mao said.

Columbia has a patent on the technology and is speaking to companies about commercial development and human trials, Mao said. “We’d like to speak with FDA,” he added.

Many groups are working in the new field of regenerative medicine, which seeks to harness the power of master cells called stem cells to re-grow diseased and damaged tissue.

Some are coating bone scaffolds with stem cells and implanting them but this new method induces the body to do the job itself, saving a great deal of trouble, Mao said.

Dr. Patrick Warnke of Bond University in Australia said not all patients may have this regenerative capacity — especially the elderly.

“For most patients, a standard metal joint replacement is likely to offer a faster and less demanding option than the bioscaffold, with fewer risks associated with immobility,” Warnke wrote in a commentary.

Mao’s team “have offered a promising insight into what might be on the horizon”, Warnke added.

Both the study and commentary are available at press.thelancet.com/joint.pdf.

Orthopedic device makers Stryker Corp, Zimmer Holdings Inc and Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy unit all make artificial joints.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Rabbits grow their own joint replacements in study

Reuters: Science News — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:15:49 +0000

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Canadian archeologists find lost ship in Arctic

Reuters: Science News — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:50:50 +0000

By Ka Yan Ng

OTTAWA |
Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:50pm EDT

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian archeologists have discovered the wreckage of the ship that has been credited with discovering the fabled Northwest Passage, saying the vessel remains in good condition after being abandoned more than 150 years ago in the Arctic ice.

Archeologists were able to snap sonar images of HMS Investigator on the weekend not long after they arrived at the remote Mercy Bay site in the Northwest Territories, Marc-Andre Bernier of Parks Canada said on Wednesday.

The Investigator was the British ship that was sent to search for two lost vessels that were part of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 Royal Navy expedition to discover the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic to the Pacific through Canada’s Arctic archipelago.

“This is definitely of the utmost importance,” said Bernier, chief of the underwater archeology service with Parks Canada, the federal body conducting the Arctic survey.

“This was the ship that confirmed and nailed the discovery of that passage.”

He said one of the other archeologists had likened the discovery to finding one of Columbus’s ships.

The icy waters have helped preserve the ship, which is sitting upright on the sea floor in about 11 meters (36 feet) of water and not far from the location where it was last documented in 1854.

The wreck had been difficult to find because of its remote location off Bank’s Island and also because the waters are usually very icy. This year, the team had an ice free area to work in.

“It’s in surprisingly good condition,” said Bernier. “The reason we were so lucky in a way was because the ship had not moved too much from the place it was abandoned.”

Archeologists plan to take more images this week from a small inflatable boat they are working with. They hope to use a robot equipped with cameras, similar to equipment now being used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to learn about the ship.

The graves of three Royal Navy sailors, who died in 1853 of scurvy, were also discovered. The British government has been notified of the find, Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice told Reuters from Mercy Bay.

The Investigator was deployed in 1850 with a 66-man crew, but was eventually abandoned after being locked in the grip of Arctic ice for two winters. The crew, led by Captain Robert John LeMesurier McClure, left behind a cache of equipment and provisions on the shore of what is now part of Aulavik National Park.

Prentice, who was scheduled to stay at the site for several more days, said the discovery of the ship and the artifacts on shore formed an “incredibly rich treasure trove.”

“This really knits together the history of that really early exploration — this history of the Inuit people … who have been here thousands of years, and our modern attempts here in Canada,” said Prentice.

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Rob Wilson)

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