Severely injured soldiers will be getting a huge boost from the work getting underway at the University of Texas at Arlington. Liping Tang, Ph.D., a bioengineering professor and interim chair of the bioengineering department, has received a $1.04 million grant from the U.S. Army. Dr. Tang and his team will be working on the regeneration of cartilage tissue and the reduction of posttraumatic osteoarthritis using a patient’s own stem cells…all with a little help from microscaffolding made of biodegradable polymers.
$1.04 Million to University of Texas for Cartilage Regeneration
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“We’ve found that if we inject microscaffolding that we’ve developed into the injured area, it can trigger the stem cell generation needed for proper healing, ” Dr. Tang said in the October 30, 2014 news release.
“Joints and cartilage are surrounded by stem cells that need instruction in where to go and what to do. The microscaffolding recruits a patient’s stem cells that are needed in the healing process. Biomolecules will be released from the scaffolds to transform stem cells into cartilage cells to form new cartilage tissue while reducing the symptoms associated with arthritis.” Dr. Tang said this new treatment could eventually cure posttraumatic osteoarthritis.
Khosrow Behbehani, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering, said that Dr. Tang’s research also gives hope for people who suffer through some other traumatic injuries to cartilage. “The injectable scaffolds developed can be used not only by soldiers but also millions of people worldwide who suffer from arthritis, ” Behbehani said in the news release.
Dr. Tang said he and his team believe this research could graduate to a clinical setting using patients within five years.
Dr. Tang told OTW, “I was surprised to learn that the host’s stem cells can be recruited to the injured sites via localized release of stem cell chemokines. Localized recruitment of stem cells can actually reduce inflammatory responses. There are many stem cell-like cells around the joint tissue.
He adds, “We plan to make degradable micron-sized scaffolds to target injured cartilage tissue. By localized release of stem cell chemokines at the injured cartilage tissue site, we hope to recruit stem cells to the injured tissue. We hope to reduce inflammatory reactions and to jump start cartilage regeneration in situ.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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