Abstract:
A method selects a vertebral body having an interior volume occupied, at least in part, by cancellous bone. The vertebral body has at least one cortical plate that is depressed due to fracture. The method establishes a percutaneous path into the vertebral body. The method introduces through the percutaneous path a tool that forms a region of compressed cancellous bone. The method conveys a bone filling material through the percutaneous path into the region to move the fractured cortical plate toward a desired anatomic position.
Abstract:
Devices and methods compress cancellous bone. In one arrangement, the devices and methods make use of an expandable body that includes an internal restraint coupled to the body. The internal restraint directs expansion of the body. In one arrangement, a method for treating bone inserts the device having the internal restraint inside bone and causes directed expansion of the body in cancellous bone. Cancellous bone is compacted by the directed expansion.
Abstract:
An expandable structure carried at the end of a catheter tube assembly can be contracted and/or wrapped to present a reduced profile during deployment and/or removal from a targeted tissue site.
Abstract:
An expression system for recombinant production of a desired protein comprises CHO cells transformed with a DNA sequence having the desired protein coding sequence under control of the human metallothionein-II promoter. The cells can be maintained on serum-free medium and induced in the presence of an induction mediator. In addition, the system may include an enhancer element and/or a resistance-conferring gene to provide increased levels of expression. The system can process genomic as well as intronless DNA, and is capable of producing proteins which have the same characteristics as those obtained from native sources. Human growth hormone which is indistinguishable from that produced by the pituitary has been thus produced.