28 May 2011
By Kounteya Sinha
New Delhi, India
Doctors in Delhi have helped a 25–year–old re–grow his hips by injecting in him cells that were extracted from the patient’s bone marrow. Doctors, headed by cell therapy specialist Shrish Dutt Mishra, used Autologous Osteoblast Implantation (ABI) to treat Gurjeet Singh, a management student from the UK. Gurjeet was suffering from Avascular
Necrosis (AVN), which is caused due to loss of blood supply to bones. Lack of blood leads to atrophy in bone tissues. Usually, AVN affects the end (epiphysis) of long bones like femur, which extends from knee joint to hip joint. The most common treatment option for Gurjeet’s condition was total hip replacement (THR). Since THR has its downsides – long recovery process and a short lifespan of replaced bones – it is not recommended for youngsters.
Dr Mishra went for ABI, a unique procedure that involves taking bone marrow from the patient’s hip through a biopsy and the osteoblast cells (that helps build bones) were extracted from it. The procedure, which took only 10 minutes, was conducted at a south Delhi hospital on April 15. The cells were sent to RMS Regrow, the lab of a biotechnology firm, in Lonavala, Maharashtra. The cells were cultured there to transform and expand many folds (up to 48 million cells) for about five weeks, and then sent back to be re–implanted.
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