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British scientists have created an artificial bone material that supports human bone marrow-derived STRO-1+ skeletal cells.

Professor Mark Bradley told The Telegraph that it would be five years before human trials and longer before whole replacement bones could be created. The eventual aim is to have an implantable scaffold that can support new bone growth before dissolving, leaving patients with a naturally produced replacement.

Scientists at Edinburgh’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine have found that the leprosy bacterium reprograms adult nerve cells to help spread the infection throughout the body.

The bacteria downregulate differentiation-associated genes in adult Schwann cells and upregulate genes of mesoderm development. The reprogrammed cells resemble stem cells and can transfer bacteria around the body, both by becoming new muscle cells and by causing the release of bacteria-laden macrophages.

As The Guardian reports, this research is of greater interest than simply understanding the disease because it may provide a way to create pluripotent stem cells without using a virus that can cause mutations.