New Cartilage for Knee Pain (written by Biloine Young @ OTW)
In a process not unlike the race to map the human genome, researchers are competing to coax chondrocytes into creating cartilage—the connective tissue in joints that helps to distribute weight and allows bones to slide past one another without causing pain.
Age brings damages to cartilage as does obesity and injuries. Unfortunately, unlike muscle, cartilage has no blood supply, which makes healing difficult.
Researchers can already grow chondrocytes in the lab, but coaxing them to make high-quality connective tissue is the hard part....
