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Japanese hospital uses magnetized stem cells in cartilage restore surgery

Xinhua, February 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Japanese hospital on Friday conducted a regenerative surgery using magnet to concentrate iron powder-containing stem cells around damaged cartilage, the first of its kind in the world, according to the Kyodo news agency.

A team at Hiroshima University Hospital led by Mitsuo Ochi, a professor at the hospital, conducted the operation on an 18-year- old senior high school girl, whose cartilage at right knee joint has been lost.

The endoscopic surgery is less arduous for the patient, said the team. Conventional treatment needs surgery twice to repair cartilage.

In the operation, the team extracted mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow of the patient and cultivated them mixed with iron powder to create iron powder-containing stem cells that can develop into various tissues.

The team injected the stem cells into the patient's right knee joint and used the magnet to concentrate them at a point where cartilage has been lost. These cells are expected to develop into cartilage.

Cartilage absorbs shock and prevents friction between bones so that its loss causes pains. Cartilage has limited repair capabilities.

It will take at least a year to determine the effectiveness of the regenerative surgery on the patient, although previous animal tests have been successful, the team said.

The team plans to conduct further operations to reaffirm the regenerative surgery's safety in clinical research. Endi