About the project
Articular cartilage (AC) is a shock absorber facilitating free movement of joints. AC is susceptible to damage due to trauma and daily wear and tear. Currently, there are no therapeutic drugs that promote the healing of damaged AC. If left untreated, progressive AC damage leads to osteoarthritis, which affects ~630 million people worldwide. Joint replacements of the knee and hip offer a new lease of life to patients with severe osteoarthritis. However, these surgeries are not without risks and not always successful, thereby necessitating expensive revision surgeries with less effective outcomes.
To repair AC damage at an early stage, surgical interventions use the patient's own AC cells (articular chondrocytes) that have been cultured in the lab to increase cell number. However, there are a number of limitations associated with the use of cultured articular chondrocytes, thereby necessitating an alternative source of cells capable of generating robust articular cartilage.
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), namely human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, grow indefinitely and have the ability to give rise to all cells of the body including cartilage cells. This project will investigate the ability of hPSCs to differentiate into cartilage cells, which will be characterized comprehensively through molecular and proteomic analyses. The ability of the hPSC-derived cartilage cells to repair articular cartilage damage will also be examined.
It is a clear aspiration that this project will provide a real opportunity to obtain hPSC-derived cartilage cells that have the potential of subsequent clinical use to treat articular cartilage damage in the early stages of osteoarthritis.
Suggested reading:
Griffith et al (2021) Sci. Rep. 11: 18921.
Jevons et al., (2018) Regen. Med. 13: 189-206.
