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Cartilage grown from stem cells in a laboratory may one day repair damaged knees, according to research from UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering. Lead author, Kyriacos Athanasiou and his team used adult stem cells from bone marrow and skin as well as human embryonic stem cells to grow cartilage tissue in the lab. Now they are experimenting with various chemical and mechanical stimuli to improve its results.
One of the rare properties of cartilage is its lack of ability to heal itself. When it is damaged by injury or osteoarthritis, the effects can be long-lasting and devastating. Athanasiou adds, “If I cut a tiny line on the cartilage that covers the surfaces of bones at joints, it will never be erased. It’s like writing on the moon. If I go back and look at it a year later, it will look exactly the same.”
Work that Athanasiou’s group began in the early 1990’s at Rice University has resulted in the only FDA-approved products for treatment of small lesions on knee cartilage. Athanasiou claims, “This will be live, biological cartilage that will not only fill defects, but will potentially be able to resurface the entire surface of joints that have been destroyed by osteoarthritis.”
Currently, osteoarthritis affects nearly 27 million people in the United States, where it accounts for 25% of visits to primary care physicians, and half of all Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug prescriptions. For the one in five adults who suffer from major joint damage, joint replacements using metal and plastic prosthetics are their only recourse.
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