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Easy on the
Joints
Using a unique weaving machine of their design,
Duke Medical Center researchers have created a three-dimensional
fabric “scaffold” that could greatly improve the ability of physicians
to repair cartilage in damaged joints using a patient’s own stem
cells.
Cartilage is a type of connective tissue that lines the ends of
bones, providing cushioning and a smooth surface for their movement
within the joint. Damage to cartilage can be very painful and is
difficult for doctors to treat because the tissue lacks a supply
of blood, nerve, and lymph, and has limited capacity for repair.
Strategies currently in use for treating cartilage damage include
surgery and implants. In some cases doctors can remove cartilage
cells from patients and then “grow” them in a laboratory to form
new cartilage. But it can take several months to grow a piece of
cartilage large enough to be implanted back into the patient, and
often, this laboratory-grown cartilage is not as durable as native
cartilage.
In laboratory tests, the fabric scaffold that the researchers have
created had the same mechanical properties as native cartilage.
In the near future, surgeons will be able to impregnate custom-designed
scaffolds with cartilage-forming stem cells and chemicals that
stimulate their growth, and then implant them into patients during
a single procedure, the researchers say.
“By taking a synthetic material that already has the properties
of cartilage and combining it with living cells, we can build a
human tissue that can be integrated rapidly into the body, representing
a new approach in the field of tissue engineering,” says Franklin
Moutos, a graduate student in the orthopedic bioengineering laboratory
who designed and built the weaving machine.
“Once implanted, the cartilage cells will grow throughout the scaffold,
and over time the scaffold will slowly dissolve, leaving the new
cartilage tissue,” he says. “The use of this scaffold will also
permit doctors to treat larger areas of cartilage damage, since
the current approaches are only suitable for repairing smaller
areas of cartilage damage or injury.”
The researchers reported the new technology in the journal Nature
Materials. Moutos says he believes the scaffold could be used in
clinical trials within three or four years.
www.nature.com
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