In an attempt to create a means of engineering cartilage tissue, scientists from Umea University have succeeded by using cartilage cells from cow knee joints. This new method could be used to grow healthy cartilage tissue, and scientists could use the findings to develop a treatment, or cure, for osteoarthritis using stem-cell-based tissue engineering.
"There is currently no good cure for osteoarthritis," Janne Ylärinne, author of the doctoral dissertation, said in a press release. "Surgical treatments may help when the damage to the cartilage is relatively minor, whereas joint replacement surgery is the only available solution for people with larger cartilage damage. However, artificial joints only last for a couple of decades, making the surgery unsuitable for young persons. So we need a more permanent solution."
Tissue engineering may be a solution to this problem - in the experiments, the team of researchers shed light on how cells, which are the signaling molecules and the artificial support material for the cartilage-like "neotissues," can be combined to stimulate tissue regeneration at a damaged joint site.
The team used primary bovine chondrocytes, also known as cow cartilage, and discovered improved methods for growing cartilage tissue in the laboratory. The tissue at the end of the process was very similar to the tissue typically found in human joints.
Future studies may be able to take advantage of these findings in order to help develop neocartilage for the process of actual cartilage repair. In this process, stem cells would be grown in order to supply an unlimited amount of material for the tissue engineering process, although more in-depth research needs to be conducted in order to ensure tissue quality and structural accuracy.
The findings are a part of a Umea University doctoral dissertation that was released on Jan. 6.
