Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The knee is a complex organ that depends on healthy cartilage for pain-free articulation and proper joint function. Damaged cartilage can lead to joint pain and stiffness, loss of quality of life, and eventually lead a patient to seek clinical help. To re-grow cartilage over areas of exposed bone, many surgeons use an arthroscopic technique called microfracture to induce bleeding from the base of the cartilage lesion and stimulate a natural cartilage-repair response. When successful, these so-called ""resurfacing"" procedures can re-stabilize the joint and slow the progression of osteoarthritis. To improve the current standard of care, we have developed therapeutic implants which are made of patient whole blood mixed with chitosan, a biopolymer that contains glucosamine. Our research has shown that chitosan helps repair damaged bone and cartilage by attracting white blood cells and new blood vessels that help revitalize the repair environment. Older patients who who would like to have cartilage repair are sometimes given joint replacements instead, because the bone below their damaged cartilage is too dense to permit attraction of stem cells to regrow cartilage. In this proposal, we will develop new minimally-invasive therapies and bioactive polymer formulations to stimulate the bone below the cartilage lesion to become porous and vascularized. Our new approach will revitalize subchondral bone in aging patients to improve therapeutic results after surgical treatment of chronic cartilage lesions. Our goal is to generate new therapies will restore joint function and alleviate the pain and discomfort of arthritis.