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| Home > Trade & Investment News >Arthritis To Be Annihilated Within A Decade | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Arthritis To Be Annihilated Within A DecadeBy Brian Bell, London Press Service SCIENTISTS believe they will be able to develop a "cure" for arthritis in the next 10 years, after they successfully grew human cartilage from a patient's own stem cells - the first time this has happened. Cartilage is the dense, shiny connective tissue usually found between bones to allow the smooth movement of joints. Research published in the official journal of the American College of Rheumatology, Arthritis & Rheumatism, shows how the team from the University of Bristol, England, directed bone-marrow stem cells to become cartilage cells that can create a cartilage plug. This could allow doctors to grow cartilage for transplantation for a number of injuries and medical problems, including sports injuries, new cartilage for people having hip replacements, and even for cosmetic surgery. The new technique is expected to overcome problems associated with transplant rejection because the patient's own cells would be used to create the cartilage. Dr Wael Kafienah, from Bristol University and first author of the paper, said: "The ability to grow cartilage using stem cells could have enormous implications for a number of medical problems. As the UK's ageing population increases, there will be an inevitable increase in problems created by people living longer. "Although doctors have been able to carry out joint replacements for a number of years, replacing cartilage that is worn away is not possible. By replacing the cartilage it may be possible to avoid the need for a joint replacement for some time." The research involved growing adult stem cells taken from the bone marrow of older people undergoing National Health Service hip replacement surgery because of osteoarthritis, a form of rheumatic disease. The team, headed by Professor Anthony Hollander, the Arthritis Research Campaign professor of rheumatology and tissue engineering, devised a specialised system that encouraged the change of adult stem cells into cartilage pieces within 40 days in the laboratory. Stem cells are self-renewing and have the ability to grow into blood, bones or organs. Professor Hollander described the experiments as a "breakthrough" and now expects to grow several lumps of cartilage from the same patient, enough to make a transplant possible. To grow the cartilage, scientists took stem cells from bone and grew them on a biodegradable scaffold made of polyglycolic acid, the same material used to make dissolvable surgical sutures. After the new cartilage is formed the scaffold should melt away. He added: "There have been other attempts to grow cartilage using stem cells but tests showed that the cartilage grown was not of great quality as there has been a tendency for cells to calcify and for it to become too fibrous. "We are excited because this cartilage does not appear to have those problems. The next step will be to separate populations of bone-marrow stem cells with the greatest capacity to make cartilage in the shortest period of time," he said. The aim, proposes Professor Hollander, is "to reduce the time needed to create these implants and identify novel methods for using these stem cells instantly in theatre".
Contact: Joanne Fryer, Press Officer |
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