Patient’s nose cartilage can repair knee

London: In a breakthrough, scientists have harvested cartilage cells from patients own noses to grow replacement cartilage for their knees.

Researchers at University of Basel, Switzerland, report that cells taken from the nasal septum are able to adapt to the environment of the knee joint and can thus repair articular cartilage defects. The nasal cartilage cells’ ability to self- renew and adapt to the joint environment is associated with the expression of so- called HOX genes.

Cartilage lesions in joints often appear in older people as a result of degenerative processes. However, they also regularly affect younger people after injuries and accidents.

Such defects are difficult to repair and often require complicated surgery and long rehabilitation times.

A new treatment option has now been presented by a research team: Nasal cartilage cells can replace cartilage cells in joints. Cartilage cells from the nasal septum have a distinct capacity to generate a new cartilage tissue after their expansion in culture. The researchers have so far taken small biopsies ( 6 mm in diameter) from the nasal septum from seven out of 25 patients below the age of 55 years and then isolated the cartilage cells.