Researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel are turning to the nose to potentially heal knee injuries.

Specifically, the team is attempting to develop cartilage implants using cells from patients’ nasal septa.

To accomplish this, the researchers first extract a small sample of cartilage from the patient’s nose and those cells are subsequently multiplied in a lab and then placed on a soft fiber scaffold where they grow into new cartilage tissue. Once this cartilage achieves the necessary size and shape, it is implanted into the damaged knee joint.

In the lab, 98 patients received implants via two different approaches — with one group receiving implants that had only two days of lab maturation, which is similar to many current treatments, while the second group received implants that matured in the lab for two weeks prior to surgery.

The team noted that although both groups reported improvements, those patients who received the more mature cartilage grafts continued to show progress, even in the second year following their implant procedure. Further, additional MRI scans confirmed the benefits of the longer maturation period with the patients demonstrating improved tissue quality at the implant site, while the surrounding cartilage also showed improvement.

The study, “Clinical relevance of engineered cartilage maturation in a randomized multicenter trial for articular cartilage repair,” appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

To contact the author of this article, email mdonlon@globalspec.com