Sunday, August 16, 2009

Mimicking Human Cartilage to Repair a Knee

A recent NY Times article highlights the creation of yet another innovation in bioengineeringthe biomimicry of human cartilage for use in knee repair: "ONE way for surgeons to repair injured knees is to take cartilage and bone from another part of the knee and transplant it in the damaged area.

Now companies are developing potentially simpler knee patches: small, off-the-shelf plugs engineered to mimic the composition of human bone and cartilage." Here is a picture of invention and one of its inventors, Lorna Gibson:

"These ready-made cylinders can be inserted in an arthroscopic procedure and are known as osteochondral scaffolds, because they support new bone and cartilage as it grows. Stem cells from the bone marrow that can form bone or cartilage impregnate the pores of the cylinder." Yay for Bioengineering and Medicine!

Efe

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