Latest Cartilage Stories

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Growing up in the south, one tends to hear the older generation talk about “Arthur.”  But, the “Arthur” they’re speaking of is not a person at all. Osteoarthritis is caused by the normal aging process or wear and tear of the joints. It is the most common form of arthritis and it afflicts an estimated 27 million Americans aged 25 and older. For the first time, researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital have identified two molecules that hold promise as a...

Henry Ford Hospital researchers have identified for the first time two molecules that hold promise as a biomarker for measuring cartilage damage associated with osteoarthritis. Researchers say the concentration of two molecules called non-coding RNAs in blood were associated with mild cartilage damage in 30 patients who were one year removed from reconstruction surgery to repair an anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, injury. The findings are described as significant in the ongoing and...

Mimicking periosteum to heal traumatic bone injury A man-made package filled with nature's bone-building ingredients delivers the goods over time and space to heal serious bone injuries faster than products currently available, Cleveland researchers have found. Tested on sheep in Switzerland, the surgical elastic "implant device," essentially a wrapping that mimics bone's own sock-like sheath called periosteum, delivered stem cells, growth factors and other natural components of the...

Spatiotemporal signals guide stem cell changes A lab discovery is a step toward implantable replacement cartilage, holding promise for knees, shoulders, ears and noses damaged by osteoarthritis, sports injuries and accidents. Self-assembling sheets of mesenchymal stem cells permeated with tiny beads filled with growth factor formed thicker, stiffer cartilage than previous tissue engineering methods, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found. A description of the research...

In a study to be published online Nov. 6 in Nature Medicine, investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that the development of osteoarthritis is in great part driven by low-grade inflammatory processes. This is at odds with the prevailing view attributing the condition to a lifetime of wear and tear on long-suffering joints. "It's a paradigm change," said William Robinson, MD, PhD, the study's senior author, of the implication of the findings. "People in the...

Site-specific platform releases medicine over time, requiring fewer injections for patients A novel study demonstrates that using nanoparticles to deliver osteoarthritis drugs to the knee joint could help increase the retention of the drug in the knee cavity, and therefore reduce the frequency of injections patients must receive. This research is being presented Oct. 23 – 27 at the 2011 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington,...

FRANKLIN, Mass., Oct. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthrosurface, Inc. (www.arthrosurface.com), the developer of less-invasive joint resurfacing systems, announced that it has launched its HemiCAP® Talus Resurfacing System for damage to the ankle in Europe and other international markets. Prior to commercialization, the HemiCAP® Talus System was tested by well known Foot and Ankle surgeons throughout Europe in a four year clinical evaluation. The company reports that results from over...

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Fidia Farmaceutici S.p.A. ("Fidia") announced today that it has assumed responsibility for distributing and promoting the osteoarthritis (OA) treatment, Hyalgan (sodium hyaluronate), in the United States through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fidia Pharma USA Inc. ("Fidia USA"). Fidia USA has engaged Interpace BioPharma, LLC. ("Interpace") to provide commercialization services to support Hyalgan. Hyalgan was introduced in Italy in 1987. In...

A blast of gamma radiation could toughen up plastic prosthetic joints to make them strong enough to last for years, according to researchers in China writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology. Whole joint replacement, such as hip and knee replacement, commonly use stainless steel, titanium alloys or ceramics to replace the damaged or diseased bone of the joint. Non-stick polymer or nylon is usually used to coat the artificial joint...

A medication already approved to build bone mass in patients with osteoporosis also builds cartilage around joints and could potentially be repurposed to treat millions of people suffering from arthritis, according to orthopaedic research at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The study authors hope their laboratory findings, published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, will set the stage for the first human clinical trials to test human parathyroid hormone...