Osteoarthritis is a very common joint disorder. Due to age and normal wear and tear on the joints, the cartilage that protects the joint begins to break down, causing the bone to rub together which leads to pain and swelling in the joints. There is no cure for osteoarthritis, and up until now, many patients feel that surgery is their only option to manage the symptoms.
However, recently orthopaedic investigators have been studying the effects of periodic injections to the knee of stem cells from synovium, a thin membrane covering the inside of the joint. Nobutake Ozeki from Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan, along with his colleagues, injected these stem cells into rats with osteoarthritis. What they found is that these injections delayed cartilage degeneration. In theory, these injections could provide osteoarthritis patients with relief from the often debilitating effects of the disease.


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