Now, scientists at Imperial College have compared the 'bone-like' material grown

from three different commonly used clinically relevant cell types and have discovered

significant differences between the quality of bone-like material that these can form.

For example, the researchers have discovered that the 'bone-like' materials that were grown from bone cells from mouse skull and mouse bone marrow stem cells successfully mimicked many of the hallmarks of real bone, which include stiffness.

However, they found that the 'bone-like' material grown from mouse embryonic stem cells was much less stiff and less complex in its mineral composition when compared to the other materials, said an Imperial College release.

These results were published in Nature Materials.