The main novelty of the implant tested by the researchers is the design of a biodegradable sponge with an anchoring system to the subchondral bone which fixes the implant in the injury. In their study, was evaluated the answer of the implant after 4,5 months and according the results, the regeneration, not completely, but presents a ‘positive tendency’.
Research teams of the Universitat de València, the Universitat Politècnica de València, the Centre for Biomedical Research Network in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) - which depends on the Carlos III Health Institute- and the Hospital del Mar of Barcelona have designed and evaluated in animal model a new implant for the regeneration of the articular cartilage. Their work has been published in The International Journal of Artificial Organs.
In their study, researchers evaluated the answer of the implant after 4,5 months and according the results, the regeneration, not completely, but presents a ‘positive tendency’.
The main novelty of the implant tested by the researchers is the design of a biodegradable sponge with an anchoring system to the subchondral bone which fixes the implant in the injury.
The articular cartilage is the cover which develops the bone in the surrounding area to other one, and it is a protection to avoid bone rubbing against each other. This cover can be changed by mechanical causes, that is, by blows, sharp turns or continuous overloads in the case of sporty people, or by the aging, which can develop in arthrosis.
As José Luis Gómez Ribelles, head of the Centro de Biomateriales e Ingeniería Tisular of the UPV and researcher of the CIBER-BBN, explains, when an injury is produced in the cartilage, one of the therapies which are applied currently in clinics for its regeneration consists on produce micro-perforations in the subchondral bone, named micro-fracture.
‘This causes a flow of blood and this coagulates; it produces a regeneration but it is not suitable because the stem cells that arrive to the injure don’t find a suitable biomechanical surrounding. To palliate this defect, in this study we propose the use of a porous biodegradable sponge which is implanted in the injury, anchoring to the subchondral bone with the screw we have designed. Its porous are full of blood, they receive the mesenchymal cells and create a new tissue with characteristic more similar to the natural tissue that with only the micro-fracture’ points Gómez Ribelles.
Among the advantages which have been observed the researchers in the proves done with the animal model highlights that the anchoring between the matrix and the subchondral bone is produced by generating less injure to the bone that other implants. The results of this experimental implant have improved the results obtained by the authors in human clinics with other type of matrix and anchoring (Gelber et al.2015).
‘The injures of the article cartilage are common and are the most frequent cause of the articular pain. It is estimated that around the 6% of the adults have a degenerative disease in the knee, percentage which increases to the 10% in people older than 65. However, the reparation of the articular cartilage is a complex and difficult process, because the cartilage is unable to regenerate by itself. For this reason is fundamental to dispone of new techniques which provide regeneration alternatives which can resolve the sick problem’, explains the doctor Juan Carlos Monllau, head for the service of Orthopaedic and Traumatology Surgery of the Hospital del Mar.
After 4 months and a half the cartilage is not sufficiently mature to reach the functional characteristics which are required, but the researchers realized that is regenerates in a correct way, according the study done by the Department of Pathology of the UV.
‘Nowadays, we are working in new experiments which allow us to know the answer of the implant in long-term. If the studies are positives, the next step will be to set out the clinics validation’ concludes the researcher of the UPV, José Luis Gómez Ribelles.
References:
Vikingsson L, Sancho-Tello M, Ruiz-Saurí A, Martínez Díaz S, Gómez-Tejedor JA,, Gallego Ferrer G, Carda C, Monllau JC, Gómez Ribelles JL.Implantation of a polycaprolactone scaffold with subchondral bone anchoring ameliorates nodules formation and other tissue alteration. The International Journal of Artificial Organs. doi: 10.5301/ijao.5000457
Gelber PE, Batista J, Millan-Billi A, Patthauer L, Vera S, Gomez-Masdeu M, Monllau JC Magnetic resonance evaluation of TruFit® plugs for the treatment of osteochondral lesions of the knee shows the poor characteristics of the repair tissue.Knee. 2014 Aug;21(4):827-32.
Last update: 3 de may de 2016 12:13.
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