Stem Cells for cartilage defects

As reported in the Yorkshire Post, bioengineers from the University of Leeds have developed a technique which can put arthritic patients back on their feet within 3 weeks and cut surgery times to only 10 mins (usual surgery 2 hours). By drilling into the bone beneath the cartilage in the problem joint (known as sub-chondral drilling), bleeding from the bone marrow releases and stimulating stem cells to grow tissue within the damaged site.

It's already understood that stem cells can differentiate to form bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, tendon and ligaments. One of the challenges in any stem cell therapy is where and from whom the cells are obtained and how much to administer. By drilling the holes, the doctors would be using patient's own stem cells and allowing the stem cells to access the damaged site directly. Its exciting that now they have found a way to stimulate the formation of cartilage in vivo.

To make the cells stick and grow, the surgeons implant a pad into the tissue. According to the report, it is thought that the this approach of using the body's own cells to heal, would be cheaper than existing methods of treatment. I think its interesting that the Arthritis research campaign was awarded a significant amount of money to do the research and that Smith and Nephew are already involved in evaluating how to commercialize this procedure for clinical use in the next four years.
This article is interesting because it validates my thoughts that autologous (one's own) stem cells are still the way to go in terms of cost effectiveness and importantly, that no immunosuppression is required. The pad is a nice idea because apart from providing the cells an anchor and a bed, it can also contain other medications that may require local administration. This would really open up the market for earlier treatment as most patients would consider current total knee replacements (product currently offered by Smith & Nephew) as a last resort. Ten minutes would also be a huge time-saving bonus to orthopaedic surgeons and probably helps keep the costs of treatment down as well. If this can be developed as an accepted clinical procedure, I see no reason why most- if not all- hospitals in Malaysia with an orthopaedic surgeon would not be able to offer it to their patients.


see the article at:
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1340155