cool, gary. thanks for posting.

diane

There's a serious mistake in that article. The study leader is saying
that cartilage does not repair by itself. That's just plain wrong. It is
constantly repairing and regenerating. Certain areas of cartgilage have
a fibrous cover that permits them to get extra cells for repair and
regrowth.

On a similar note, there's a new experimental procedure where they drill
through an area that's lost most of its cartilage and into the bone
marrow of the underlying bone. The marrow spills out a bit through the
bone to where they want the cartilage to regrow. The joint is then
immobilised for weeks/months to allow this process, and the stem cells
from the marrow can regrow the cartilage.

This is probably how core decompression procedures for osteonecrosis
/really/ work: not by relieving the venous pressure from the clot, but
by allowing stem cells to move into the dead areas and regrow the bone.

Cheers,

Ari

i was just discussing the base of the thumb joint cartilage erosion with my
ot yesterday.  she said it is one of, if not, the most commonly damaged
joint due to arthritis.  she also said that the technique being used now is
to remove a piece of extra tendon and coil it up like a little rug.  those
"little tendon rugs" are then used to replace lost cartilage in those
joints, after the joints have been cleaned and prepped for it.   and
apparently the "little rug" helps regrow the lost cartilage.  this is
instead of joint replacement.  i thought that was interesting, also.

kate

http://health.msn.com/centers/arthritis/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100123696

Hope you can get there with this link. They've found they can create
cartilage with your own muscle stem cells like they can do with bone.
GaryZ