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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Dog’s leg saved from amputation by new bone regeneration technology

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Scientists and veterinarians from the University of Glasgow have successfully saved the leg of a two-year-old Munsterlander dog named Eva from amputation using medical technology funded by Sir Bobby Charlton’s landmine charity, Find A Better Way.


Hit by a car last year, Eva’s broken front leg had failed to heal properly despite receiving state-of-the-art care from the University of Glasgow’s Small Animal Hospital. A persistent infection forced vets to remove bone tissue, leaving Eva with a 2 cm gap at the top of her right foreleg. Eva was not in any real pain, but she was in discomfort and as each new attempt to treat her leg failed, amputation seemed inevitable.


Eva’s vet, William Marshall, found out by chance about the synthetic bone research project at the same university being funded by Sir Bobby Charlton’s landmine charity ‘Find A Better Way.’ Project leaders Prof Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez and Prof Matt Dalby began work in January to develop synthetically grown bone tissue for use by trauma surgeons when treating landmine blast survivors around the world. With thousands of civilians being injured by landmines and other explosive remnants of war every year, the project could transform the quality of life of landmine blast survivors in future.


The bone-growth research at the University of Glasgow is working on several technologies, but Marshall was interested in one in particular that encourages new bone tissue to grow where it would otherwise not naturally regenerate.

Trials on patients were not expected to start for a few more years, but Eva’s situation was desperate. If the new bone-growth treatment was not tried, the only other option was to amputate.


This treatment is a new way to deliver a naturally occurring protein called BMP-2. It has long been known that BMP-2 will cause bones to grow, but getting it to stick in the right place has always been a problem. In previous tests BMP-2 has spread around the body, causing bone tissue to grow in unwanted places. Quite by chance, Prof Salmeron-Sanchez had discovered that an extremely common household ingredient found in paint and nail polish called “poly (ethyl acrylate)” or PEA was perfect for holding the BMP-2 in place, and also for making it effective in extremely small doses.


Most importantly, Eva will not be living the rest of her life as a three-legged dog.

Although PEA is used in hundreds of everyday applications, it has never been approved for medical use in humans. The funded project will be seeking this approval as part of their work, but this is expected to take up to five years to come through. Having the chance to help save Eva’s leg has not only helped Eva, but it has also offered an enormous opportunity for Prof Salmeron-Sanchez and Prof Matt Dalby to learn about the potential for their new treatment.


Getting bone tissue to grow using BMP-2 is just one of the technologies being developed by the ‘Find A Better Way’ -funded project at the University of Glasgow. The final result, which will be the one used to treat (human) landmine blast survivors, will be a 3D-printed medical-grade plastic bone scaffold, covered with stem cells that generate bone at an accelerated rate (the result of a another development called Nanokick technology developed by the team with input from the University of the West of Scotland), plus the BMP-2/PEA mixture. As the stem cells and BMP-2 grow bone tissue, the plastic scaffold will biodegrade, leaving behind only newly-grown bone in place. Although initially designed to help treat landmine blast survivors, this technology has the potential to be used for anyone who needs new bone tissue.


Sir Bobby Charlton commented: “What scientists at the University of Glasgow have accomplished in the six months since ‘Find A Better Way’ funded their project is amazing.”


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