Blasting tiny bubbles at broken pig bones makes them heal on their own
Scientists have healed severe bone fractures in pigs by blasting tiny bubbles with ultrasound in the animals’ bones. The technique encourages the pigs’ bodies to regenerate themselves, and could one day be used to help humans — especially the elderly — heal dangerous bone injuries.
Broken bones are common: you wrap an arm or wrist in a cast and the bone eventually heals on its own. But sometimes, people have “nonunion fractures,” meaning bones fail to produce new bone tissue and don’t heal properly. There are about 100,000 cases of this in the United States every year. One solution is bone grafts, or bone transplants using donated marrow, but this procedure is invasive and there is a risk that the body will reject the marrow. Another…
