Although fractures normally heal, bone will not regenerate under several circumstances. When bone does not regenerate, major clinical problems could result, including amputation.
To enhance the regeneration of bone, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2, or BMP-2. However, it is expensive and only moderately effective. It also produces side effects ? some severe.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic, along with colleagues in the Netherlands and Germany, may have a viable, less risky alternative: messenger RNA. This well-known platform for vaccines has already proven to be safe in human use by the FDA.
