British patients may have received bone grafts from contaminated body parts stolen in the US, a government health agency said yesterday. An investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency identified 77 pieces of bone that were imported into the UK last year from Biomedical Tissue Services.

The New Jersey-based company is accused of plundering more than 1,000 corpses for bones, ligaments and skin before selling them for transplants. Four executives have denied the charges. It is unknown whether any of the imported bone fragments were from the corpses.

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration ordered a recall of the potentially tainted products and said many patients could have been exposed to HIV and other diseases. The body of BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke, who died of cancer, was among those allegedly used for tissues.

The MHRA confirmed it had written to 20 primary care trusts that received the bone fragments in February as "a precautionary measure".

"Once we have alerted them, it is up the the trusts to decide whether it is better to perform the operation again, or to leave the graft as it is," the agency said.