Zygomatic bones from stem cells

American teenager grew new cheekbonesABC Magazine
Maxillofacial surgeons at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center reconstructed the zygomatic bones of a 14-year-old boy with a rare genetic pathology.

The patient's own stem cells were used to grow the missing areas.

The zygomatic bones are an important element of the face, part of the eye socket and support for many facial muscles. Surgeon Jesse Taylor explained that cheekbones are a kind of shock absorber of the facial part of the skull. The boy is quite active, goes in for sports and full-fledged zygomatic bones were extremely necessary for him.

The operation was combined. First, the boy was transplanted with allografts – small parts of donor bones, which became a kind of framework, the foundation of future cheekbones. Then mesenchymal stem cells taken from the patient's own adipose tissues were injected into the holes drilled in the allografts.

He was also injected with a special regulatory protein BMP-2, which stimulated the transformation of mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts.

The boy's mother was initially afraid of the operation, but now she is grateful to the doctors for the treatment and for the explanatory work they did with her.

The pictures below show a young patient and a 3D model of his skull before and after surgery.

Source: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Doctors Grow Facial Bone in Groundbreaking Procedure

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