“If we could identify the local factors in growth and deliver it with a pump locally to the growth plate, we could have a more precise and less invasive way of correcting limb proportion in juveniles,” said Cooper.
Cooper and her colleagues also plan to study in more detail the cellular processes by which parallel bones fuse in the jerboa foot. Two cell types work together to make that happen: osteoclasts, which chew up bone, and osteoblasts, which lay down new bone.