Osteoarthritis is a condition which affects millions around the world. There is continual research into treatments to relieve the symptoms or prevent the disease all together.
A current form of treatment for osteoarthritis damaged cartilage is by harvesting cartilage cells from healthy joints and transplanting these cells into the damaged area. The main drawback is the limited amount of cells available.
Now, scientists in Britain believed that they have identified a potential treatment for osteoarthritis by use of stem cells.
Researchers at Cardiff University have discovered stem cells that are located in the articular cartilage in adults. These stem cells do not have the capability to become any cell in the way that full stem cells can. However, they do have the ability to become chondrocytes, which are the only cells found in cartilage, and in a large enough quantity to potentially treat osteoarthritis.
In their presentation at the UK National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting n Edinburgh, the research team explained that they had identified a progenitor stem cell in bovine cartilage which they were able to turn into a chondrocyte cell in a culture. Their big breakthrough was being able to identify a similar cell in human cartilage.
Lead researcher Professor Charlie Archer from the Cardiff School of Biosciences said: “We have identified a cell which, when grown in the lab, can produce enough of a person’s own cartilage that it could be effectively transplanted. There are limitations in trying to transplant a patient’s existing cartilage cells but by culturing it from a resident stem cell we believe we can overcome this limitation.”
Trials are currently underway using goats and if successful, could lead to a small clinical trial involving 20 human patients.
If the research follows current expectations it is possible that treatment could be widely used in less than 5 years.
loading...
Related posts:
Recent Comments