rtix.com

A biotech company called Regeneration Technologies Inc. (RTI) is buying up cattle - more specifically, their bones, tendons, ligaments and other body parts - for a new and promising segment of the medical-device industry.

RTI is one of a handful of U.S. companies that make precision screws, spinal wedges and hundreds of other surgical implants from biologic tissue instead of synthetic materials or metal. As the company's name implies, the implants have regenerative properties, leading to faster healing, less pain and greater range of motion than patients get from parts made of metal or plastic. Until now RTI has manufactured parts made from donated cadavers. But recently RTI unveiled a line of animal-derived implants, made from cows. These bovine bits could represent the future of medical implants.

The company's tiniest products fill bone voids - for example, gaps left by the removal of tumors. Its largest, wedges that resemble hunks of parmesan cheese, are used to repair large skeletal defects such as fractures. Surgeons use the products as a sort of biologic scaffold; over time they are absorbed into the patient's own bone so seamlessly that even X-rays can't distinguish where bone ends and graft begins. Now RTI is hoping to make a similar leap with its cow-derived implants.

Why cows? The animals are much easier - and cheaper - to procure, and yield more grafts. So far, the company's studies show that such grafts are just as biocompatible and safe as those from donated human tissue. They are also stronger and stiffer - although still much more flexible than the top synthetic equivalents made from plastic or metal. --Cynthia Barnett