Cartilage cells from the nose for the knee joint

Repair the knee joint with cartilage cells from the nose

08/30/2014

Especially older people often have to fight with joint diseases. But even younger people may have damaged their joints, for example as a result of accidents or injuries. Scientists have now developed a method by which damaged articular cartilage can be repaired by cartilage cells from the nasal septum.

Damaged articular cartilage due to abrasion and injuries

Although older people in Germany are primarily affected by joint diseases, the joints of younger people can also be damaged by accidents or injuries, for example. In elderly, the articular cartilage in the knee is often damaged by abrasion (arthritis) or rheumatoid arthritis. Around five million people in this country are said to be suffering from the common disease osteoarthritis. About every third man and every second woman over the age of 60 years was affected by patellar pain or knee joint pain.

Repair articular cartilage with nasal cartilage

Since articular cartilage does not regenerate, doctors have long been looking for ways to relieve the pain in the knee. Often this involves complicated operations such as the use of an artificial knee joint followed by protracted rehabilitation. A team of scientists at the Department of Biomedicine at the University and University Hospital of Basel headed by Professor Ivan Martin, Professor of Tissue Engineering, and Prof. Marcel Jakob, Head of Traumatology, have now introduced a method to repair damaged articular cartilage with cartilage cells from the nasal septum can. The researchers published their findings in the journal „Science Translational Medicine“.

Cartilage cells of the nasal septum can regenerate themselves

The cartilage cells of the nasal septum have a special ability: they can regenerate themselves. For the current clinical study, the researchers extracted small six-millimeter-diameter biopsies from the nasal septum in seven out of a total of 25 patients under the age of 55 and isolated the cartilage cells, which were then multiplied many times. These cells were then placed on a scaffold to grow a piece of cartilage about 30 by 40 millimeters in size. A few weeks later, the cartilage piece was used instead of the damaged articular cartilage in the knee joint.

Further reviews in the next two years

It will now be examined how this graft is tolerated and whether it connects to the surrounding cartilage tissue in the knee joint. This should be examined after six, twelve and 24 months in the MRI scanner. „The findings of basic research and preclinical studies on the properties of nasal cartilage cells and the grafts grown from them have opened up the possibility of investigating an innovative treatment for cartilage defects in patients“, said Prof. Ivan Martin about the study results.

With the same procedure nasal wing reconstructed

The scientists in Basel used the same procedure to reconstruct the nostrils that were infected with tumors in a clinical study in collaboration with plastic surgery. So it was reported in April of this year: „Nostrils of bred cartilage for the first time“. Thus, nostrils have so far been reconstructed from cartilage pieces which are surgically removed from the ear, nasal septum or ribs of the patient. This is usually very painful. The researchers around Professor Martin had taken for the new method small samples of cartilage cells from five patients aged 76 to 88 years, these increased and then continue to grow to 40 times the size of the original sample. Finally, the seniors were implanted with the tissue which had been brought into the desired shape for the nose and covered with a skin graft. One year after surgery, the patients were satisfied with their appearance and their ability to breath. (Ad)