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Cartilage implants offer hope for knee injuries (Barbero Lab and Martin Lab)
Researchers at the Department of Biomedicine, together with colleagues at the University Hospital Basel and other centers in Germany, Italy and Croatia, have developed cartilage implants from nasal septum cells that offer a promising solution for knee injuries. Their latest clinical study shows that giving the engineered cartilage more time to mature significantly improves patient outcomes.
Cartilage injuries do not heal on their own, which may increase the risk of degenerative joint diseases. A team led by Prof. Dr. Ivan Martin and Prof. Dr. Andrea Barbero, with first authors PD Dr. Marcus Mumme and Anke Wixmerten extracts nasal cartilage cells, cultivates them in the laboratory, and implants the resulting engineered tissues into damaged knees. These cells have regenerative and anti-inflammatory potential, making them well suited for cartilage repair.
A clinical trial involving 98 patients in four countries compared two different approaches: one group received cartilage implants that matured for two days, while the second group’s implants matured for two weeks. The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed that while both groups improved, those with more mature implants experienced greater subjective and radiological clinical benefits two years after the intervention. The extended maturation time involves minimal additional cost but yields significantly better results, especially for patients with larger injuries or in patients where previous treatments have failed. More than 30 years after the first engineered cartilage has been generated, this study clinically proves that it can make a difference in patient outcomes.
Encouraged by these results, the groups now plan to test the technique for treating osteoarthritis, an inflammatory disease that degenerates joint cartilage and causes significant pain and disability. Two large clinical trials, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the EU’s Horizon Europe program, will investigate its benefits for patellofemoral osteoarthritis in a total of 225 patients.
The DBM congratulates Ivan Martin, Andrea Barbero and their teams, as well as all collaborators. These results and the future studies, which are being carried out with strong support by the Department of Clinical Research (DKF), pave the way for more effective treatments of cartilage damage, with the ultimate goal to enhance patient mobility and to delay or reduce the need for joint replacement. These activities also contribute to further develop the field of cellular therapies at the University and the University Hospital of Basel, in line with strategic priority programs (e.g., Innovation focus ‘Regenerative Surgery’)