Osteoarthritis, or Degenerative Joint Disease, is an extremely common condition characterized by degradation of cartilage in joints, often accompanied by bone remodeling and bone overgrowth at the affected joints. According to the Arthritis Foundation, the disease affects an estimated 27 million adults in the United States, mostly after age 45. The disease has many causes, but the end result is a structural degradation of joint cartilage and a failure of chondrocytes (cartilage-forming cells) to repair the degraded cartilage collagen matrix. Our collaborators have derived chondrocytes from hESCs. Transplantation studies conducted in rodent models of an articular cartilage defect show good engraftment and repair of the defect that integrates well with host cartilage. Our collaborators intend to initiate large animal studies in 2010.
