Then, the patient’s stem cells would be injected into the fabric. Guilak says they could grow between the layers into a living cartilage one millimeter thick that is customized to the patient’s diseased joints.
“I think what we will be able to do if this succeeds is just remove the worn out cartilage and basically cap it with this material, which would just replace the cartilage itself and leave all the native bone in place. So it’s a much less invasive surgery and hopefully replace it with a living cartilage,” he said.
Guilak and colleagues are now planning animal experiments with the synthetic cartilage.
An article on the development is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Article Appeared @http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-create-artificial-joint-cartilage/1816363.html