Go Duke! Researchers Create Joint Cartilage (Orthopedics This Week)
Step by step researchers are closing in on a major goal in orthopedics—engineering replacement cartilage for joints from stem cells. Building on the work honored with this years’ Nobel Prize in medicine which demonstrated that adult stem cells could be made to take on the properties of embryonic stem cells, researchers at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, have successfully created articular cartilage tissue.
Farshid Guilak, Ph.D., Laszlo Ormandy Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke and Brian O. Diekman, Ph.D.., a post-doctoral associate in orthopaedic surgery, reported their results in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "What this research shows in a mouse model is the ability to create an unlimited supply of stem cells that can turn into any type of tissue—in this case cartilage, which has no ability to regenerate by itself,” said Guilak, senior author of the study.
Articular cartilage is the shock absorber tissue in joints that makes it possible to walk and perform daily activities without pain. Ordinary wear-and-tear or an injury can diminish cartilage’s effectiveness and...
