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Potter potion , Skelegro, coming soon!
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Harry Potter has just won the Quidditch match, but not before a rogue Bludger smashes his elbow and breaks his arm. He falls to the ground only to be tended to by Professor Guilderoy Lockhart, a ridiculous character with no ability and less self-knowledge. Professor Lockhart directs his wand at Harry’s arm and instead of mending the bones, accidently makes them disappear. Fortunately, Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, gives Harry Skele-gro and in a matter of time, the bones regrow, restoring all functionality. The stuff of fiction? Not if the researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have anything to say about it.
That’s because they are close to creating a Skele-gro of sorts and are ready to test it on humans in a research setting. How? Basically, they coaxed mouse stem cells to become cartilage and act as a glue, thus healing the bone.
This is important because around 600,000 patients in the U.S. have injuries each year that will not heal. These patients typically are elderly women with osteoporosis, children with brittle bone syndrome and trauma victims.
Ok, fine. We understand that they coaxed mouse stem cells to become a glue -like cartilage, but how do they know if the cells can find the break? This part would make J.K. Rowling jealous! Fireflies, of course. No, really. They injected normal mice with the substance that makes fireflies glow and when they extracted stem cells from these mice, they got glow-in-the-dark stem cells. I promise I am not making this up!
The researchers then injected the glow-in-the-dark stem cells into normal mice with fractures, put them in a dark box and watched to see if the glow-in-the-dark stem cells went to the fracture. It turns out they did.
But wait, you ask. How did the stem cells know where to go? Why the fracture called to them, silly. Really. Seriously, the team noticed that a molecule on the stem cell was reacting to a distress call in the form of a chemical sent out by the fracture. As if the fracture was calling out, “Help me over here”. The glow-in-the-dark stem cell responded to the SOS by going to the site of the break and repairing it.
Unlike Veritaserum or Polyjuice potion, this potion will soon be tested in the lab on humans to repair severe fractures. Hat’s off to Dr. Anna Spagnoli and her team. This type of spellwork by the non-magical community is to be commended!
Topics: health care , treatment , health research
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