Stem cells given a good nanokicking

Human
stem cells have been converted into bone cells using a technique called
'nanokicking'.

The 'nanokicks'
are in fact high frequency vibrations which encourage the transformation. The
technique is at its earliest experimental stage but researchers say it may one
day allow a patient's own stem cells to contribute to bone repair.

Dr Matt
Dalby from the Centre for Cell Engineering at the University of Glasgow,
who led the study,
said that the research 'provides a simple method of converting adult stem cells
from the bone marrow into bone-making cells on a large scale without the use of
cocktails of chemicals or recourse to challenging and complex engineering'. This
is a reference to more conventional techniques by which specialised cells can
be produced from stem cells.

The
process of bone formation in the human body - osteoblastogenesis - normally
involves the vibration of mesenchymal stem cell membranes as they adhere
and join together to form bone tissue. Nanokicking mimics the frequency of this
vibration with kicks to the stem cells of between five and 30 nanometres, 1,000
times per second.

'If you
take one cell and blow it up to the size of a football, then the amount we're
shaking the cells is the same as sliding one sheet of paper in and out from the
bottom,' co-author Dr Stuart Reid, from the Thin Film Centre at the
University of the West of Scotland told the BBC.

To ensure
that they were delivering the nanokicks at the right frequency, the study borrowed a technique from astrophysics called laser
interferometry. This technique, a statement from the University of Glasgow
says, is more often used 'to detect tiny ripples in space-time caused by
gravitational waves'.

Despite the
need for such hi-tech equipment, the paper says that were the technique to be
used clinically, it would be 'easy to envisage [the technology] being up-scaled
to form large-scale osteoblast bioreactors'.

Engineers
at the Queen Elizabeth National
Spinal Injuries Unit at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow are currently investigating the
technology as a potential therapy for spinal cord injuries.

Dr Sylvie
Coupaud, from the Department of Biomedical
Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, who was not one of the
paper's authors, also noted that people of reduced mobility are at risk of
developing osteoporosis because they are unable to exercise. Nanokicking, Dr
Coupaud said, 'could be
applied to stimulate bone formation and maintain bone health in these patients,
as an alternative to traditional exercise'.

The study was published in the journal ACS Nano.