The human body is vulnerable to injuries—bone breaks, skin burns, and heart attacks, but regenerative medicine scientists are working to help us heal faster by enhancing the ways that the body heals itself. Show full synopsis +
Take a tour of the bone and discover how old or injured bone tissue is constantly being replaced with new bone cells, in a process called remodeling. These new cells come from the bone marrow, a veritable factory of adult stem cells. Doctors are studying these processes to figure out how to help bone heal faster and better.
Most tissues in the body are less efficient at healing themselves. When trauma or injury occurs, the body replaces it with scar tissue, a weaker replacement of the original tissue. The heart is an organ that doesn't have a big regenerative capacity. This critical muscle circulates blood to carry oxygen and nutrients to the whole body. One of the biggest health threats today are heart attacks, which are caused by the accumulation of cholesterol in the blood vessels that feed the heart cells. If heart cells are not getting enough oxygen and nutrients, they can die and interrupt the rhythmic beating of the heart – this is a heart attack. Doctors are studying ways of using adult stem cells found in the bone to help grow new tissue and heal the heart.
Hide full synopsisTissue Engineering for Life: Bone and Cardiac Modules
Get this movie! Contact Dr. John Pollock to get a copy of this movie:
pollock@duq.edu
Specs
Ages | Middle School and up |
Duration | 25 min |
Key topics | bone biology, bone marrow, heart muscle, heart attacks, stem cells, tissue engineering, scaffold, regenerative medicine |
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