
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 6, 1994                   TAG: 9410060038
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CELL TRANSPLANT REPAIRS ARTHRITIC JOINT DAMAGE

Researchers using a novel cell-transplant technique have found a way to repair the kind of joint damage that leads to the most common form of arthritis.

If the new method could be perfected and offered at an early stage, the team from the University of Goteborg, Sweden, concluded, ``the need for a total joint replacement might be postponed or eliminated.''

The group, which reports its findings in today's Thursday's set out to treat defects in knee cartilage - a condition that can cause the painful inflammation and stiffness called osteoarthritis - with a technique never before used in humans: They extracted some healthy cartilage cells from a nearby section of the patient's knee, grew large numbers of them in culture, and injected them back into the ailing joint.

Over time, the researchers found, the transplanted cells appeared to regenerate the tissue in most cases, filling holes and thickening the cartilage pad.

by CNB