Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days

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Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 7, 2012 @09:32AM from the silly-putty-not-as-effective dept.

An anonymous reader writes "If we break a bone it can take weeks or even month to heal depending on the type and severity of the break. In some extreme cases the complexity of the fracture can make it impossible to heal properly. Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have come up with a new solution for healing broken bones that cuts recovery time to days. It relies on the use of stem cells that contain a bone generating protein. These cells are injected in gel form directly into the area of the broken bone, where they quickly get to work forming new bone. The end result is very rapid recovery, possibly sidestepping the muscle atrophy that can come with long bone healing times. The gel has been proven to work on animals as big as a sheep and has funding from the DoD. Lets hope it is proven to work on humans in the coming years."

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How "silly" is it, though? by advtech · 2012-02-07 09:34 · Score: 5, Funny

Can this putty pick up the comics section from the local newspaper as it heals your bones? If not, I'm out.
1. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by assertation · 2012-02-07 09:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I think you probably stumped some of the younger slashdotters with that joke.
2. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:40 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I don't know about comics, but it may be able to help a broken humerus.
3. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by XxtraLarGe · 2012-02-07 09:46 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Would you really want the latest "Garfield" or "Hagar the Horrible" imprinted on your ulna?
  
  --
  Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
4. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by Ihmhi · 2012-02-07 09:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  HI BILLY MAYS HERE FOR FRACTURE PUTTY! ARE YOU TIRED OF HOPPING AROUND ON CRUTCHES LIKE SOME SORT OF ALIEN BATTLE MECH?! DID YOU BREAK YOUR KNUCKLE BACKHANDING YOUR WIFE BECAUSE SHE WOULDN'T CLEAN THE KITCHEN WITH ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY OXY-CLEAN?! DID THE SOUND WAVES FROM MY VOICE SHATTER THE BONES IN YOUR ARM?! THEN FRACTURE PUTTY IS FOR YOU!
  FRACTURE PUTTY CAN MEND BROKEN BONES FASTER THAN YOU CAN MEND YOUR LOVELESS MARRIAGE! DEVELOPED BY SCIENTISTS FROM THE INSTITUTE OF PLUMBER'S CRACK, FRACTURE PUTTY IS MADE OF INDESTRUCTABLE SPACE-AGE MEMORY FOAM POLYBICARBONATESILICADEXTROSEGLUTAMATE!
  ORDER NOW AND WE'LL SLASH THE PRICE FROM $39.99 TO $19.99! BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! ORDER IN THE NEXT 15 MINUTES AND WE'LL INCLUDE A SECOND CONTAINER OF FRACTURE PUTTY ABSOLUTELY FREE!
  .
  .
  .
  And to get around the filter... Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
  P.S. I really wish they'd do away with the filters. It really hampers the possibility for creative ASCII art and the like that actually made Slashdot pretty cool back in the day. =\
  
  --
  Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
5. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by pixelpusher220 · 2012-02-07 09:57 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Given that it's been successful in tests on sheep...My assumption was the next step would be treating 'baaaaaaaad baaaaaaaacks'
  
  --
  People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
6. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by Thud457 · 2012-02-07 10:05 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Can this putty pick up the comics section from the local newspaper as it heals your bones? If not, I'm out.
  I think you probably stumped some of the younger slashdotters with that joke.
  yeah, wot's a "newspaper" ?!!!
  
  --
  the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
7. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by poetmatt · 2012-02-07 10:27 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  says the anon who sadly didn't post creative ascii art.
8. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by Hillgiant · 2012-02-07 10:31 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  It really hampers the possibility for creative ASCII art and the like that actually made Slashdot pretty cool back in the day. =\
  And my "creative ASCII art", he means "penises".
  
  --
  -
9. Re:How "silly" is it, though? by gmhowell · 2012-02-07 14:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  It appears to be some combination of the word "news" and the word "paper". I'm confuzzled however, what is "paper"?
  It's what we used before the three shells.
  
  --
  Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
In other news... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:39 · Score: 5, Funny

People creating "jackass" type TV shows and youtube videos are up %1000
They still have to be your own cells, right? by dutchwhizzman · 2012-02-07 09:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

It'd be a bummer if you don't have a large supply of your own stem cells in your home fridge, or else this wouldn't work, or am I misinformed and you can use other peoples stem cells for this?

--
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
1. Re:They still have to be your own cells, right? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:48 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I had my ankle fused recently and part of the procedure was some kind of putty that they infused with a small sample of marrow they scraped from right below my knee. My recovery was about a month, but it worked remarkably well. I am not sure how that compares to the procedure in this article, but it is not hard to harvest the needed stem cells from the patient themselves.
2. Re:They still have to be your own cells, right? by ceoyoyo · 2012-02-07 10:23 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You have a decent supply of stem cells that should work just fine, right in your body.
3. Re:They still have to be your own cells, right? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-02-07 14:52 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  if you don't have a large supply of your own stem cells in your home fridge
  They know (in the lab anyway) how to take a random cell from you, force it to turn into a pleuripotent stem-cell and then make it become a 'whatever' (e.g. bone) cell. A happy side effect of Bush's fetal stem cell ban.
  So, I guess on a long-term basis, you'll have to wait a few days after you break your bone for this kind of treatment. Or, I guess if you're rich you can have this kind of stuff banked and ready. It's not worth $10,000 a year to me to guard against this kind of wait, but maybe if I had 4 billion in the bank I'd look at it differently.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Here we go... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:41 · Score: 5, Funny

The question we're all afraid to ask:
What happens if I rub this stuff on my penis?
1. Re:Here we go... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Depends how fast and hard you rub
2. Re:Here we go... by schlachter · 2012-02-07 10:50 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  boner
  
  --
  My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
NOW they develop this... by Ronin+Developer · 2012-02-07 09:43 · Score: 4, Interesting

I just spent six weeks in a cast after breaking my right arm Christmas Night (no...no rogue or drunk reindeer involved). There is now a titanium plate and six screws in my arm. My other wrist is broken also (yes...I fell and had a hell of hard time getting up). Now, I have to endure painful PT to regain full use of my arm again and have a 5 inch scar too (no...it is NOT cool).
How I would have loved to have this stuff injected into the fractures and have it immobilized for a few days while it took action and fuzed the bones. I do hope this comes to fruition...cool stuff. Who said war wasn't useful?
1. Re:NOW they develop this... by Hatta · 2012-02-07 09:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  . I do hope this comes to fruition...cool stuff. Who said war wasn't useful?
  Take all the money we spend on wars and spend it on R&D. We'll get a lot more cool stuff a lot faster. War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
  
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  Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
2. Re:NOW they develop this... by Intropy · 2012-02-07 09:56 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Good God, y'all.
3. Re:NOW they develop this... by jdastrup · 2012-02-07 09:58 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I consider myself religious and do not hate stem cells. In fact, I support stem cell research. "People that are against stem cell research" have been trying to block this, not religious people. Yes, as with everything, there is some overlap. But many religious people own toasters. Does that mean all religious people like toast?
4. Re:NOW they develop this... by pixelpusher220 · 2012-02-07 09:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
  No..it always has the minimum benefit of teaching Americans geography.
  
  --
  People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
5. Re:NOW they develop this... by Daniel+Dvorkin · 2012-02-07 10:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Take all the money we spend on wars and spend it on R&D. We'll get a lot more cool stuff a lot faster. War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
  If the money not spent on war were spent instead on R&D, this would be true -- cut the DoD budget in half and give the money to NIH and NSF, and we'd have a boom in science and technology like none the world has ever seen. But politics doesn't work that way. The military wastes a hell of a lot of money, no question about it. It also spend a lot of money on very worthwhile research, and like it or not, it's easier to get Congress to appropriate that money for wounded soldiers. Who, regardless of your opinion on the way in which they were injured, deserve to have their wounds cared for as well as possible by the same government that sent them out to get injured in the first place.
  In the specific area of trauma care, the simple fact is that most of modern emergency and orthopedic medicine is an outgrowth of military medicine. Like it or not, next time you call 911, you'll have a much better chance of survival because of generations of work directed toward keeping wounded soldiers alive.
  
  --
  The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
6. Re:NOW they develop this... by Nyder · 2012-02-07 10:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  ... Who said war wasn't useful?
  Family members of the dead.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
7. Re:NOW they develop this... by thestudio_bob · 2012-02-07 10:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
  I don't know, they had some pretty solid hits ("Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?") and seem to have a fairly decent following. Just because you don't like American Funk, doesn't mean someone else doesn't.
  
  --
  The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
8. Re:NOW they develop this... by SleazyRidr · 2012-02-07 10:48 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  No it doesn't, they just remember the names of places. The Chaser did a bit where they took a map and rewrote it so that Australia was labelled as either Iran or North Korea, then showed that map to Americans and asked them to located them. They just saw the name, and pointed at it saying "there it is!"
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
9. Re:NOW they develop this... by timeOday · 2012-02-07 10:50 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If I were an injured soldier, I might want a break. Perhaps athletes will be among the first adopters. If you want to find people who are often injured, and to whom recovery might be worth tens of thousands of dollars per day, look to the NFL.
10. Re:NOW they develop this... by idontgno · 2012-02-07 11:01 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  With the interesting side effect of calling most members of the armed forces crash test dummies.
  I'm a veteran, and I have used VA medical care. I have to confess that this analogy works very well from that perspective.
  
  --
  Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
11. Re:NOW they develop this... by wierd_w · 2012-02-07 11:17 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  This is only true because it is easier and more economical to destroy the blastocyst for collection than it is to harvest single cells from them nondestructively.
  This then causes a viscious circle, in which researchers requiring access to fresh embryonic cell cultures are strapped for cash and labspace/time, because they are denied funding, because of destructive collection techniques. Being strapped for cash and time, they can't realistically use nondestructive techniques using the limited funds they get from private investments, and still do their research... necessitating destructive collection. (Which in turn, reinforces the situation where they don't get grant money.....)
  The solution is to offer grant money with the hardlined requirement of nondestructive collection. When the majority of embryonic stemcell collection is non-fatal to the embryos, then the religious types won't object to the collection and research.
  The scientists cannot really be the ones to act here; they are strapped for research funds enough already, and are the victims of the viscious circle. The ones that need to act are the religious politicians who are currently ignorant/recalcitrant of the non-destructive alternatives. (These non-destructive approaches have been around since the 90s, when the whole embryonic stemcell shitstorm started. I remember a c-span segment late on a Saturday night with a cellular biologist giving a presentation against the stemcell funding ban to a practically empty building. The politicians had scheduled his presentation for a time when they wouldn't be there. The whole basis of his presentation was the refutation of the "embryonic stemcells == murder" partyline that was driving the ban's momentum. It was a very good presentation, but again, nobody was in attendance.)
  If you ask the hardnosed "embryonic stemcells are murder!" Religious crowd what they would think if the cells could be harvested without destroying the blastocyst, thus preserving it for future implantation, you will find that they react with shock, curiosity of if that's true, and then curiosity/anger of why that isn't done exclusively.
  The problem is not that the tissue comes from blastocysts. The problem is that the blastocysts are destroyed. This is only necessary because of the funding restrictions an.d the added costs and culture times associated with single cell extractions.
  Fix the funding problem with some limiting verbage to require nondestructive collection, and the whole ethical tapestry dissolves like cotton candy in a rainstorm.
  Of course, the real challenge is getting the willfully ignorant in government to realize what they are doing.... as the poor researcher found out the hard way. I don't remember his name, but whoever he is, I do applaud the effort.
12. Re:NOW they develop this... by Nutria · 2012-02-07 11:21 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I've only seen conservatives and the religious get their panties in a twist over fetal stem cell research. Back in the day, W made it as explicit as possible that he was only banning fetal stem cell research.
  
  --
  "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
A theoretical question about height by gcnaddict · 2012-02-07 09:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

There exist treatments overseas for increasing a person's height which rely on repeatedly fracturing leg bones and spacing them such that they heal at a distance, essentially lengthening the bone.

Do we have any osteopathologists on slashdot who can comment on whether this can theoretically shorten such a procedure's duration to make someone taller in a matter of one or two weeks? The current procedure takes at least a few months, if not a year.

--
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
Re:Sheep by Ronin+Developer · 2012-02-07 09:44 · Score: 4, Funny

I think you mean "boning sheep".
Adult stem cells better then fetal? by fish_in_the_c · 2012-02-07 09:44 · Score: 4, Informative

Three nice things about them:
1) They are usually harvested from the entity translated too so less problem with rejection ( is this the case here the article didn't say).
2) The have been proven to work and use in many other places.
3) No one has any moral objections to them.
So many good reasons to not even worry about fetal stem cells , but no one ever bothers to talk about that.

--
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
1. Re:Adult stem cells better then fetal? by Corporate+Drone · 2012-02-07 09:53 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Right now, Fetal Stem cells have many more advantages.
  Except that these are multipotent, not pluripotent stem cells, and therefore, we're not talking about fetal stem cells.
  The sources for MSCs include "umbilical cord blood, adipose tissue, adult muscle or the dental pulp of deciduous baby teeth"... but not fetal stem cells.
  Nice try, though...
  
  --
  mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
2. Re:Adult stem cells better then fetal? by drainbramage · 2012-02-07 10:03 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Would it have been so hard to not be a bigot and just provide at least one source?
  Perhaps 'Stem Cell Basics': http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics5.asp
  -----
  While decrying zealots make sure you don't see one in the mirror.
  
  --
  No brain, no pain.
large animals by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-07 09:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

this would be great for horses. its nearly impossible to allow multi-leg fractures to heal properly with a large animal .. they usually just get put down.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2012-02-07 10:15 · Score: 5, Informative

Comment removed based on user account deletion
not sure by no-body · 2012-02-07 10:15 · Score: 4, Funny

what bone fracture has to do with ssh....
anyway - weird things exist nowadays
PuTTY by gnurfed · 2012-02-07 10:35 · Score: 4, Funny

Is there ANYTHING a telnet/SSH client CAN'T do? :p
sheep in the metaphorical sense... by schlachter · 2012-02-07 10:49 · Score: 5, Funny

Oh, you mean they literally tested it on sheep. They weren't referencing the people who volunteered for testing?

--
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.