Engineers Make Strides Toward Artificial Cartilage (Science Daily)
A Duke research team has developed a better recipe for synthetic replacement cartilage in joints.
Combining two innovative technologies they each helped develop, lead authors Farshid Guilak, a professor of orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering, and Xuanhe Zhao, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, found a way to create artificial replacement tissue that mimics both the strength and suppleness of native cartilage. Their results appear Dec. 17 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Articular cartilage is the tissue on the ends of bones where they meet at joints in the body -- including in the knees, shoulders and hips. It can erode over time or be damaged by injury or overuse, causing pain and lack of mobility. While replacing the tissue could bring relief to millions, replicating the properties of native cartilage -- which is strong and load-bearing, yet smooth and cushiony -- has proven a challenge.
In 2007 Guilak and his team developed a three-dimensional fabric "scaffold" into which stem cells could be injected and successfully "grown" into articular cartilage tissue....
