Can Stem Cells Heal Cartilage? Texas Doc to Find Out

Will stem cells from a patient’s own fat tissue aid in healing cartilage after knee surgery? Damaged knee cartilage is hard to treat and, untreated, can lead to constant pain and disability. More than four million knee arthroscopies are performed worldwide each year, according to the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. To test the potential of stem cells to deal with this problem, Robert Burke, M.D. an orthopedic surgeon with Fondren Orthopedic Group in Houston, Texas, and InGeneron, Inc. are joining to launch a clinical trial to find out if cells from adult adipose tissue can help heal their damaged cartilage.

The study will utilize InGeneron’s patented Transpose RT system to prepare regenerative cells from the patient’s own fat tissue. The Fondren Orthopedic Group is recruiting qualified patients for the study. Adults age 18 to 68 in the Houston area are invited to apply for enrollment.

“Articular cartilage, the smooth surface covering the joints at the ends of bones, has no good way of healing on its own, ” Burke told the Herald OnLine reporter. “The body doesn’t create enough new cartilage of the same type to repair the damage.” He believes that better treatments would use ways to help the body make new cartilage. “Stem cells and other regenerative cells that we can obtain from fat have the potential to do that, ” he said.

Burke will perform identical surgery, one that is commonly used for treating cartilage damage, on all patients in the study. One group will have only the surgery. A second group, selected randomly, will have a small amount of fat removed from under their skin and processed using the InGeneron Transpose RT System to separate out the regenerative cells. The separated cells will then immediately be placed into the area of damaged cartilage during knee surgery. Once inside the knee, Burke hopes that the cells will divide to make new cartilage cells. Burke plans to monitor both groups for 12 months after the surgery to see if adding cells improves cartilage healing.

Burke says that this sort of biological activity has been seen in laboratory studies and veterinary medicine. His study will be one of the first to test the technology for treating cartilage damage in humans. The treatment is not currently licensed for human use in the United States but is registered and used in Europe, Mexico, and other countries. Burke says that he will be following the Texas Medical Board’s rules about using adult stem cells for treatment. The study is being conducted under the supervision of the research review board at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, where all of the surgeries will take place.