Growing new cartilage outside the body.

• Position: Arthritis - Medical research - Brief Article

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., are excited about a new technique for repairing cartilage that could have significant advantages over the procedure now commonly used. It involves growing cartilage cells within a novel "designer" gel outside the body, then ultimately delivering the cell-seeded gel into a damaged joint.

The idea is that the tissue will grow and integrate with the normal cartilage surrounding it while the gel slowly degrades, leaving behind a functioning tissue. Although the engineered tissue has yet to be tested in...