Stem Cell Niche in Osteoarthritic Joints - Preliminary Results

Challenging the centuries, old statement cartilage do not regenerate, several, reports are describing, the presence of, condroprogenitor populations within ostheoarthritic cartilage., Osteophytes are non-osteoplastic protrusions, which, are formed gradually into an OA joint, into certain predictable, anatomical locations., Known to be related to evolution and progress of the disease, osteophytes formation has been, proposed as a in vivo, stadial model for induced cartilage repair processes, remarkable little taken in account so far. The, histological, description of, chondroprogenitors presence, within an extended, base of human cartilage samples, assessment of, their functionality together with progress in, understanding of, the dysfunctional osteophytic niche are factors that, could be the base of, using, local progenitors, as a cell source for different, strategies of cartilage regeneration, especially for "in situ assisted, reconstruction". The, paper describes, experiment set up and our preliminary results in the description, and functional assessment of progenitor cells within human late stages, of osteoarthritic cartilage.