Year 3

During the 3rd year of the project we have been able to show that when stem cells are injected to osteoporotic animals, they migrate and home to vertebral fractures. We also showed that treating the animals with an FDA-approved drug, PTH, enhances the homing of the stem cells (i.e. more cells migrate to the site of the fracture). Using microscopy and specific fluorescent dyes we were able to investigate the fate of the injected stem cells after they arrived to the fracture site. Apparently these cells turn into bone-forming cells and participate in the fracture repair. Indeed, when we measured the repair of the vertebral fractures (i.e. amount of new bone that was formed) we found that the combination therapy of stem cells and PTH had a superior effect compared to the therapies that included only stem cells or were left untreated. We are currently evaluating the use of lower doses of PTH that are equivalent to the dose used for prevention of fractures in osteoporosis patients. In summary, we believe that our results so far merit further investigation of the proposed therapy that might prove beneficial of numerous patients suffering from vertebral compression fractures every year.