Student's research brings hope for fracture patients

A research by a student in the King George's Medical University (KGMU) will enable patients with extremely complex bone fractures get a quicker recovery. The research has found a way to stimulate the bone formation process.

Dr Shilpa Trivedi, a Ph.D student of the oral maxillofacial department at KGMU, has found in her study that stem cells obtained from tooth pulp can fasten the bone formation process in bone grafts.

The grafts are generally used for the replacement of bone portions in complex fractures, where a portion is either missing or has to be taken out. In her study, she extracted stem cells from tooth pulp and performed culture to let them grow for six weeks. Later, they were transfused into the bone graft to monitor their effect. Monitoring of specimen was done for 21 days and the process was repeated with different proportions of stem cells.

It was found that with a specific proportion of stem cells, bone regeneration was two and a half times higher than the scenario when stem cells were not transfused into the graft. "It gives hope that patients in whom bone grafting is needed, can have faster recovery," said Dr Trivedi. Dr Shilpa Trivedi was also conferred with Best Ph.D Thesis Award in KGMU's annual research showcase.

She emphasised that since it was a lab-controlled study, further investigations of animals have to be carried out. "Only after passing animal trials, human trials will begin and if found successful, it might be a boon for complex fracture patients," said Prof Divya Malhotra, her mentor and faculty at the oral maxillofacial department.