Biomarkers for diagnosis of delayed fracture healing

<strong>Background</strong><br>

Delayed or incomplete bone fracture healing can be observed in approximately 5–10% of patients following a fracture of the long bones. Known risk factors for delayed or incomplete healing are severe fractures, old age, steroid therapy or diabetes. No reliable blood or serum marker have been idenitified so far, which are applicable for predicting delayed fracture healing early in time. Osteocalcin, bone alkaline phosphotase and TGF beta have been investigated as predictive markers. However these parameters have only a limited validity for prediction due to a high intra-/ inter patients variability and/ or a late predictive time point.<br><br> <strong>Technology</strong><br> Recent findings suggest a key role of inflammation and T-cell response within the bone repair processes. The invention offers biomarkers for the prediction of delayed bone fracture healing by determining the frequency of two specific T-cell subpopulation from peripheral blood of patients. The frequency of T-cell subpopulations in peripheral blood can be measured with specific anti T-cell antibodies and fluorescence based flow cytometry. <br><br> <strong>Benefits</strong> Reliable biomarker for early predicting outcome of bone fracture healing allowing early interventions <br><br> <p><strong>IP Rights</strong><br> An European patent application was filed at the European Patent Office in February 2012<br> <br> <strong>Origin</strong><br> The technology was developed at theCharité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin(Germany).</p>

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