Cartilage grafts grown in lab dishes.Replacements for joint cartilage cartilage (kär`təlĭj), flexible semiopaque connective tissue without blood vessels or nerve cells. It forms part of the skeletal system in humans and in other vertebrates, and is also known as gristle. ground down during athletics or inflamed by arthritis may one day come in sheets of living cells grown in the laboratory. A team led by orthopedic researcher Daniel Grande of North Shore University Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y., has cultured sheets of cartilage-secreting cells called chondrocytes in quantities large enough for use in resurfacing the injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. knee joints of rabbits and dogs. If these animal trials succeed, Grande and his colleagues at Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a La Jolla La Jolla (lə hoi`yə), on the Pacific Ocean, S Calif., an uninc. district within the confines of San Diego; founded 1869. The beautiful ocean beaches, in particular La Jolla shores and Black's Beach, and sea-washed caves attract visitors and , Calif.-based biotechnology company, plan to test the grafts in humans. The frafts consist of chondrocytes seeded on a matrix of dissolvable suture suture /su·ture/ (soo´cher) 1. sutura. 2. a stitch or series of stitches made to secure apposition of the edges of a surgical or traumatic wound. 3. to apply such stitches. 4. material. Grande's team grew the grafts in a tissue culture system, developed by Advanced Tissue Sciences, that maintains the proper oxygen level and physical stress for cartilage formation. Because transplanted chondrocytes are poorly recognized by a recipient's immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. , Ron Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , Advanced Tissue Sciences' vice president for medical affairs, expects the grafts to provide a universal source for replacing cartilage in a wide variety of patients, regardless of tissue type. He predicts that the recipients' bodies will eventually substitute their own chondrocytes for the foreign ones. Several other research groups have cultured chondrocytes in the laboratory, but Cohen says the resulting cartilage proved too weak to bear the weight of large animals. He asserts that the new technology should yield stronger cartilage. |
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