By: 15 February 2013

In a small study, researchers reported increased healthy tissue growth after surgical repair of damaged cartilage if they put a “hydrogel” scaffolding into the wound to support and nourish the healing process. The squishy hydrogel material was implanted in 15 patients during standard microfracture surgery, in which tiny holes are punched in a bone near the injured cartilage. The holes stimulate patients’ own specialised stem cells to emerge from bone marrow and grow new cartilage atop the bone.

Results of the study, published in an issue of Science Translational Medicine, are a proof of concept that paves the way for larger trials of the hydrogel’s safety and effectiveness, the researchers say.

“Our pilot study indicates that the new implant works as well in patients as it does in the lab, so we hope it will become a routine part of care and improve healing,” says Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD, Jules Stein Professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Translational Tissue Engineering Center (TTEC).

Tissue engineering researchers, including Elisseeff, theorised that the specialised stem cells needed a nourishing scaffold on which to grow, but demonstrating the clinical value of hydrogels has “taken a lot of time,” Elisseeff says. By experimenting with various materials, her group eventually developed a promising hydrogel, and then an adhesive that could bind it to the bone.

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Junior editor at Fintech Intel