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Arthritis Damaged
Cartilage may be treated with Stem Cells
January 30th, 2006
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Cartilage in a
joint (in red) |
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A study published in the February 2006 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism
found that rats treated with muscle-derived stem cells helped to repair
torn cartilage.
Articular cartilage which is the cartilage found at the ends of bones
where they meet at a joint can become damaged from injury or illness.
At this time there is no treatment to restore and repair completely this
type of injured cartilage. The researcher’s looked further into the
possibility of stem cells that came from muscles instead of bone
marrow. The researchers on this study took the muscle-derived stem
cells (MDSCs) with a therapeutic protein to see if the articular
cartilage could be repaired in rats.
The lead researcher Johnny Huard, PhD who is director of the Growth and
Development Laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and is also
an associate professor in the departments of Orthopedic Surgery and
Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry and Bioengineering at the University
of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine and along with other researchers
researched what would happen to damaged knee joints in 36 rats that were
12 weeks old.
The researchers further divided the knee injured rats into 3 groups.
Group 1 had the stem cell treatment that was embedded in fibrin glue.
Group 2 had the stem cells that were cultured with genetically
engineered expression of bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4). Group 3
was the control group treated with fibrin glue.
The rats with the most repaired tissue were the MDSC-B4 group, (group 2)
with results measured at 8, 12 and 24 weeks after the surgery was
performed. The other groups did not show much improvement and by the 24
week there was deterioration of the cartilage.
"This finding indicates that continuous endogenous BMP-4 supplied by
MDSCs genetically modified to express BMP-4 over an extended period of
time can enhance articular cartilage healing," said the author of the
study.
There has been a lot of research for cartilage repair with stems cells
that are derived from bone marrow, but this study is the first to
research stem cells that come from muscle. The researchers believe that
this study shows proof-of-principle for having MDSC implantation in
adult humans. The author of this study also suggests that patients
could possibly be their own stem cell donors. This research offers
hope for possible treatments in the future for people suffering from
arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
By
Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer
common keywords and misspellings: arthitis
artitis joint paine cartiliage dammaged repairred treetment reserch
stemcell |
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