New recipe for replacement cartilage

A way to create artificial replacement tissue that mimics the strength and suppleness of natural cartilage has been engineered by a team from Duke University in the UK.

Articular cartilage is the tissue on the ends of bones where they meet at joints in the body including knees, shoulders and hips. It can erode over time or be damaged by injury or overuse, causing pain and lack of mobility. While replacing the tissue could bring relief to millions, replicating the properties of native cartilage (which is strong and load-bearing, yet smooth and cushiony) has proven a challenge. 

Now a team has got together to develop a material that outperforms all other known potential artificial replacements and their results are published in Advanced Functional Materials. It may not be quite as good as natural cartilage, but the researchers claim it’s the next best thing.

“From a mechanical standpoint, this technology remedies the issues that other types of synthetic cartilage have had,” says Dr Xuanhe Zhao, one of the key scientists involved in the work. “It’s a very promising candidate for artificial cartilage in the future.”

Before it becomes available, the next step is to test small patches in animals and then in humans.