Cartilage Without Scaffolds

The Houston Chronicle is running an article on the tissue engineering of new cartilage as a brute force therapy for the age-related damage of arthritis: "I have been researching this area of cartilage since 1984, and this is the most excited I have ever been about the work ... Athanasiou's group describes the first successful method of growing and molding cartilage into natural forms without requiring scaffolds, trellis-like arrangements upon which cells are seeded and grown. ... Using nothing but cartilage donor cells, Athanasiou's group grew dime-sized disks of cartilage nearly identical to that in the body. ... We're no longer talking about repairing a small lesion. Potentially, we're talking about effectively treating osteoarthritis by resurfacing the entire joint. I'm not saying we're there yet, but we're beginning to see that it's doable."

Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/3747377.html

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