The Arthritis Foundation recently came out with its list of the top 10 arthritis events for the year 2007. This series will focus on those events.

#6: Development of a woven mesh for cartilage engineering

Researchers have been looking for a way to create cartilage that can be used to replace cartilage that has been damaged by arthritis. Biomedical engineers have been able to create simple cartilage but continue to work on development of cartilage that demonstrates the same biologic and mechanical properties as natural cartilage.

In 2007 Duke University Medical Center’s Farshid Guilak, PhD, along with a team from Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved a breakthrough in the development of biologic cartilage.

The team produced an innovative structure on which to grow cartilage. It is based on a microscopic technology that creates a 3 dimensional scaffold which can be seeded with cartilage cells. This “textile” is a weave of fibers in 3 directions giving it length, width and depth.

The cell-infused fabric is then transplanted into the arthritis damaged joint. Over time the cells will grow and mature into healthy cartilage while the scaffold breaks down and is absorbed by the body.

Next for the team is to test the engineered tissue on mice to validate that the new cartilage functions correctly. If that is successful, this new form of cartilage will be available to treat joints damaged by osteoarthritis or other cartilage injuries.