Research indicates that injectable goo could fix some joints without surgery. Live Science reports:
Scientists have invented an injectable “goo” that can regrow cartilage in the body. For now, they’ve only tested it in sheep, but it could someday be used to repair joint damage in humans, the researchers say…..Stupp and his colleagues have created a type of injectable biomaterial that can regenerate the hyaline cartilage in joints. They described their invention in a study published Monday (Aug. 5) in the journal PNAS.
‘Our new therapy can induce repair in a tissue that does not naturally regenerate,’ Stupp said.
Once injected into a joint, a protein within the goo recruits a chemical in the body called transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-b1), which promotes cartilage repair. The goo also contains a type of complex carbohydrate, or polysaccharide, called hyaluronic acid, which can coax stem cells into forming cartilage.
The researchers tested the goo in sheep that had a type of cartilage defect in their stifle joint — a complex joint that resembles the human knee and is found in the upper back legs of four-legged animals.
Within six months of the one-time injection being delivered, the goo triggered noticeable cartilage growth and enhanced repair in the animals’ damaged joints. The new biomaterial performed better than injections of just TGF-b1, which were given to a comparison group of sheep. Importantly, the structure of the new cartilage in the sheep treated with the goo resembled that of hyaline cartilage, the team found.
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