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HUMAN fat cells sucked out of bellies and buttocks may one day help to heal
damaged knees, suggests a report from this week’s annual meeting of the
Orthopaedic Research Society in San Francisco. Geoffrey Erickson and Farshid
Guilak, biomedical engineers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North
Carolina, and their colleagues found that stromal cells—primitive cells
that are removed during liposuction—can be transformed into cartilage
cells. The researchers transformed the cells by placing them in a
three-dimensional polysaccharide mesh bathed in a cocktail of vitamin C, growth
factors, a steroid and other ingredients. Guilak says more work is needed to
ensure the cells won’t transform again once they are implanted inside a damaged
joint.