Signaling protein may improve fracture healing in patients with diabetes

A protein that stimulates the activity of skeletal stem cells has been shown to help heal bone fractures in diabetic mice. Researchers confirmed the results with bone samples from patients with diabetes, according to a press release.

In diabetic mice and in bone samples from patients with diabetes who had undergone joint replacements, stem cell activity is decreased. The researchers hope that this protein can be used to development treatments that will help patients heal after surgery.

“We've uncovered the reason why some patients with diabetes don't heal well from fractures, and we've come up with a solution that can be locally applied during surgery to repair the break,” Michael Longaker, MD, co-director of Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, said in the release.

Longaker and colleagues built on previous research that found that when mice had depleted skeletal stem cells, their fracture healing was impaired. They found that this was due to signaling problems with a family of proteins called hedgehog, which play a role in tissue regeneration, among other things.

The researchers then devised a gel with the hedgehog signaling proteins embedded that, when applied to the fracture site, allowed mice to heal at a normal rate.

Human bone samples confirmed these results.

“Here we've devised a feasible strategy for reversing a tissue-specific pathology — the inability to heal skeletal fractures efficiently — in a complex metabolic disease like diabetes, through the local application of a compound to stimulate the activity of adult stem cells,” Longaker said. “We anticipate that hedgehog-mediated molecular therapies that directly target stem cells in human patients could be therapeutic.”

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.