A new osteoarthritis stem cell therapy will be tested on UK patients for the first time as part of an Arthritis Research UK year long trial. The trial will mix stem cells with cartilage cells in the lab and then see them injected into knee joints with damage.
Experts hope that the new treatment will bring a new alternative to joint replacement surgery. Up to 70 people will be included in the study over the year, which is being conducted by scientists at Keele University.
The trail will be run at the Oswestry, Shropshire Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital as part of a research programme that will extend for five years. The trial will be randomized and three different treatment methods will be used on patients that suffer from knee osteoarthritis.
The surgery takes cartilage cells from the patient along with bone marrow cells that are taken and grow in a lab for three weeks. After growth is complete, the cells will then be implanted back into patients and mixed together for other patients in the area where their cartilage is torn.
At this point scientists will test how effective all three types of the therapy are based on how well the cartilage forms over the following year.
For the past 15 years cartilage cells have been lab grown and then re-injected into knees of patients, but now scientists are attempting to figure out of stem cells will help stimulate more growth.
