DAMAGED knee cartilage can now be repaired by growing a patient’s cells on a scaffold then inserting it. As cartilage does not naturally regenerate itself after damage, the new technique offers hope of rehabilitation to many patients.
Tissue engineers led by Anthony Hollander at the University of Bristol, UK, took healthy cartilage-producing cells from 23 patients with knee injuries and grew them on scaffolds made from hyaluronic acid – a compound normally found in cartilage (Tissue Engineering, vol 12, p 7).
After two weeks of growth, the cells and scaffold were reinserted to fix cartilage tears. More than a year…
