Scientists at the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration think they may have found the answer. They generated cartilage tissue in the laboratory by successfully differentiating embryonic stem cells into cartilage cells, and then used these to generate three-dimensional pieces of cartilage tissue without any synthetic or natural supporting materials. This is known as a ‘scaffold-free’ cartilage tissue engineering technique.
The researchers are the first to use the scaffold-free technique to generate cartilage tissue, which is scaled up beyond 1 mm without adversely affecting its structural and mechanical properties. The team hopes that eventually, after more research is conducted, this lab created tissue could be routinely used in surgery to mend damaged cartilage.
The interdisciplinary study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, was led by Dr Franchesca Houghton and Dr Rahul Tare from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.
Dr Houghton said: “This research is exciting as our ability to generate cartilage with properties akin to normal human cartilage has the potential to provide a robust tissue engineered product for cartilage repair.”
Dr Tare adds: “This tissue-based approach of replacing ‘like-for-like’ has the potential to constitute a step-change improvement in current cell-based surgical approaches for repairing damaged cartilage and improve long-term patient outcomes.”
This research was funded by the Institute for Life Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton; Rosetrees Trust; MRC CiC and EPSRC IAA.
Source: Eurekalert
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