Nasal cartilage relieves osteoarthritis of the knee-ScienceDaily

Research teams at the University of Basel School of Biomedical Sciences and the University of Basel Hospital are culturing cartilage tissue from cells in the nasal septum to repair articular cartilage in the knee. A team led by Professors Ivan Martin and Andrea Barbero has already succeeded in doing this in early clinical studies of isolated cartilage damage, and this approach may also be suitable for degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis. I am reporting that there is.Their findings were published in the journal Scientific translation medicine..

Osteoarthritis is associated with cartilage deterioration, which can cause severe pain and impair mobility. Traditional treatment approaches are aimed at relieving inflammation and pain until total knee arthroplasty is unavoidable. However, joint prostheses have limited durability and are problematic to treat, especially in younger patients.

From nose to knee

A possible alternative could be to use artificial cartilage tissue to repair articular cartilage. To this end, the research team, in collaboration with orthopedists and plastic surgeons at the University of Basel Hospital, takes tissue samples from the patient’s nasal septum, cultivates isolated chondrocytes, and uses them to cartilage. The layer is grown and then surgically transplanted. For knee joints.

Unlike traumatic and localized cartilage defects, the tissue environment of the knee with knee osteoarthritis, for example, after a sports injury, is characterized by a persistent inflammatory response. “First, we needed to test whether cartilage replacement was attacked by inflammatory factors and degenerated,” explains Ivan Martin.

Researchers led by Professor Martin’s PhD student Lina Asebed Lua, project leader Dr. Carolina Pertari, and orthopedist Dr. Marcus Munme first inflamed in various models of laboratories and small laboratory animals. Cultured human cartilage tissue was tested in the presence of sex factors. Next, chondrocytes from the nose of sheep in the knee joint of the same animal with knee osteoarthritis were used to test the durability of cartilage tissue that was simultaneously subjected to inflammatory and mechanical stress.

Anti-inflammatory chondrocytes

The results of the animal experiments were encouraging. The tissue made from nasal chondrocytes not only proved to be very robust, but also seemed to counteract the inflammatory response. Upon further analysis, this effect may be due to the fact that the chronically up-regulated molecular signaling pathway (WNT signaling pathway) in osteoarthritis was suppressed by the presence of nasal chondrocytes. It became clear.

Professor Martin explains the amazing properties of nasal cartilage: “Unlike articular cartilage, these chondrocytes are derived from neuroectoderm progenitor cells and therefore have distinct regenerative and adaptive capabilities (plasticity). Tissues grown from nasal cartilage. Cells also have these. Seems to retain the special properties of. “

After successful testing in animals, the researchers also tested the approach in two young patients suffering from severe osteoarthritis, probably due to leg bone misalignment. Their alternative treatment would have been a knee prosthesis.

Less pain and joint recovery

Following the transplantation of cartilage manipulated from the patient’s own nasal chondrocytes, two subjects reported pain relief and improved quality of life. In one of the two patients, the researchers were also able to confirm through MRI images that the bones of the knee joint were farther apart than before. This indicates joint recovery. The second patient was unable to perform an MRI scan due to travel restrictions during the pandemic and could only interview him to derive a subjective assessment.

In addition, researchers can surgically correct bone misalignment in both patients and eliminate the most likely cause of osteoarthritis, so researchers have found that patients have knee joints for at least some time. I am confident that it can be managed without a prosthesis.

“Our results have made it possible to lay the biological basis for treatment, and we are cautiously optimistic,” says Martin. This approach first requires further evaluation of the treatment of patellofemoral osteoarthritis through detailed clinical trials in which the team is financially supported as part of the Innovation Focus (“Regenerative Surgery”) by the University of Basel Hospital. there is. Researchers are also aiming to further develop methods for other types of osteoarthritis to enable treatment of a wider range of patients.