Detroit Jewish News

December 28, 2017

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St. Joe's is a nationally award-winning health care provider, offering excellence in the areas of Cardiovascular, Orthopedic, Cancer, Women's Health, and Pulmonary care. We take great pride in earning the trust of the community and in being the health care provider of choice for North Oakland County residents and their families. Discover Award-Winning Care For a referral to a St. Joe's physician or more information, visit stjoesoakland.org or call 800-372-6094. 2159570 36 December 28 • 2017 jn Times of Israel G roundbreaking surgery to regrow part of a human bone was carried out last week at HaEmek Hospital in the northern Israeli town of Afula. Danny, a resident of a nearby kib- butz, who had part of his shinbone removed eight months ago after a car accident, was treated in the pro- cedure, which was hailed by medical staff as "science fiction." During the surgery, the first of its kind in the world, doctors took fat cells from the patient, grew them in a lab and injected them back into his body for them to generate the miss- ing parts of the bone, Yediot Achronot reported Dec. 20. The procedure was developed sev- eral years ago by Israeli biotechnology company Bonus BioGroup. Fat cells are separated from the cells capable of generating tissue and blood ves- sels, and the latter are grown in a bioreactor, a device that simulates the environment inside the human body and provides optimal condition for bone generation. After two weeks, the process yields tissue that can be transplanted in the patient's body and regrows the missing parts of the bone. "We created thousands of tiny bone particles, each one of them alive, which enables us to inject them into the missing part where they join together to form a fully functional bone," said Dr. Shai Meretzky, CEO of Bonus BioGroup. The surgery was carried out by Prof. Nimrod Rozen, head of the orthopedic ward at HaEmek. "Our patient arrived with a miss- ing part in his shinbone that his body could not regenerate on its own," he told Yediot. "In the surgery, I trans- planted the cells we extracted from him two weeks ago and, within six weeks, the bone will regrow itself and his shin will function normally again. This surgery is truly science fiction; it changes the entire game in orthope- dics. Today I have the ability to grow any bone in a lab." According to Rozen, the new sur- gery can also help elderly people who suffer from osteoporosis and cancer patients who had amputations. In the future, he contends, it could even be used to make people with dwarfism dozens of centimeters taller. "In every surgery, I can add 10 centi- meters, and it can be repeated several times," he said. "This can change the self-esteem of many people." Danny, who became the first person in the world to undergo the innovative procedure, said he trusts his doctors. "I am sure they did a good job and hope that in a few weeks I will be able to stand normally on my foot again." In a procedure last month at the same hospital, in what it said was part of a clinical trial, semi-liquid live human bone tissue, which had been grown in a lab from a patient's fat cells, was transplanted into the patient's arm by injection. • 'Science Fiction' Israel doctors implant cells to regrow gap in shin bone. HaEmek Medical Center Campus PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS health

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