| Theme |
Regeneration of bone and cartilage |
| Title |
Cartilage regeneration using synovial stem cells |
| Author |
Nobutake Ozeki |
Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University |
| Author |
Takeshi Muneta |
Joint Surgery and Sports Medicine, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University |
| Author |
Ichiro Sekiya |
Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University |
| [ Summary ] |
Because articular cartilage has very limited repair and regeneration capacities, cartilage injury remains a common clinical problem in the field of orthopedic surgery. The transplantation of stem cells represents a useful method of regenerating cartilage. We have identified that synovial MSCs are superior to MSCs derived from other tissues in terms of colony-forming ability, proliferation capacity with the use of autologous human serum, and in vitro/in vivo chondrogenic potential. When a suspension of synovial MSCs was placed on a cartilage defect for 10 minutes, 60 % of the cells attached to the defect site. Based on these basic research results, we initiated clinical trials of synovial MSC transplantation to repair cartilage injury using arthroscopy. This method is minimally invasive with fewer serious side effects, and it achieves both cartilage regeneration and improvement in symptoms. |