Growth Plate Regeneration For Continued Growth After Partial Ossification Has Been Achieved By Dr. Robert Tracy Ballock

I have been keeping up with the latest developments in 3-D Printing for the last year or so, and it has gotten me interested in buying my own printer to play with. Of course my intention is to use the printers to create cartilagenous tissue to replicate the epiphyseal hyaline cartilage.

The problem is that even though I might be able to draw out the major molecular mechanism pathways like the IHH-PTHrP loop, I still can’t figure out how his team managed to get the chondrocytes to get into columnar formation, even with thyroxine.

It seems that I might be already late to the game, if this recent report made about our friend Dr. Robert Ballock (at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery) is true. I found this very short post made just about 1 month ago on 2/24/2014 entitled “Regrowing Growth Plates: A Fix for Kids’ Injuries? – Promising research to mend growth-stifling plate damage“. The post was written actually on the Cleveland Clinic’s website.

It makes sense that this post would have been written so recently. If it was written even a quarter ago, I would have picked up on this big news.

I copy and pasted the part which is most revelant below…

A new approach: growth plate regeneration

The good news is that researchers are exploring an exciting new way to address growth plate injuries that stifle bone growth: regenerating new growth plate tissue.

This research arises from recent advances in understanding how growth plate cartilage cells multiply, arrange themselves like stacks of coins, and mature. “These advances provide a unique opportunity to develop strategies for regenerating growth plate cartilage after serious growth plate injuries,” says R. Tracy Ballock, MD, a surgeon in Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery who is conducting research in this field under a National Institutes of Health grant.

In test tube studies, Dr. Ballock’s research team developed a 3-D cell culture model that replicates the key features of what appears to cause growth plate cartilage to develop in the column-like shape that leads to lengthening of the long bones in children.

The team used the cell culture model to study molecular and cellular signals that regulate this column-shaped growth in plate cartilage. They showed that, in the test tube, cartilage growth is promoted by stimulation of several pathways of proteins that pass signals from the outside to the inside of a cell.

.…While Dr. Ballock notes that potential studies in humans are still years away, he adds: “The ability to successfully regenerate growth plate cartilage in the same column-shaped ‘architecture’ in which it naturally develops would have a transformational impact on the practice of pediatric orthopaedic surgery. It would make it possible for the first time to replace growth plates that have been irreversibly damaged — not only by injuries but also by infection or radiation.”

We’ve been aware of Dr. Ballock’s research (The grant that the article referenced is available here) for a long time now, and we knew that he did succeed in growing a growth plate cartilage-like tissue in the lab (since he had gotten an award for it more than a decade ago), but I am still surprised that he and his lab team has been able to reach this far already.

Like most doctors, his claims always comes with some caution. It is supposed to be years away from being used on human’s, but my guess is that they have tested the regenerated growth plates on a few select young patients already to revert stunted bone development due to bone bridges.

I am choosing right now not to contact him or his department until I can get all the information I can gather so I can make smart discussions with him on his research at his level of understanding. Hopefully he is willing to talk, since Tyler has said in previous posts that he is a friend of the cause.