Le 16 mai 2019.

Treating osteoarthritis using bandages may soon be possible: French researchers have developed an implant to regenerate painful joints damaged by osteoarthritis, to be applied as a bandage. 

Osteoarthritis affects 80% of people over 80

Osteoarthritis, the most common disease of the joints, in France would affect 3% of those under 45, 65% of those over 65 and 80% of those over 80. This disease ultimately leads to the destruction of cartilage. According to Inserm, until now, to treat osteoarthritis, the treatments were ” only symptomatic. But research has made it possible to discover new therapeutic targets: they lead to the development of targeted treatments aimed at halting the progression of the disease. ".  

Thus, according to a study conducted by a team of French researchers from Inserm and the University of Strasbourg, which was published in the journal Têkiliyên Niştimanî on May 14, 2019, it would be possible to treat osteoarthritis using an osteoarticular implant to regenerate the joints affected by the disease, to be applied as a bandage.

A therapeutic dressing to treat osteoarthritis

Concretely, the dressing consists of two successive layers, details Inserm in a press release: a first layer serves as a support in the form of a conventional dressing. It’s about a ” membrane composed of nanofibers of polymers with small vesicles containing growth factors in amounts similar to those which our cells themselves secrete ".

The second layer will help regenerate the cartilage of the joint. This time it is a ” hydrogel layer, loaded with hyaluronic acid and stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow xwe ".

For the moment, the researchers’ work relates only to animals: the tests were carried out on the mouse and the rat but also on the ewe and the goat, which are ” models very suitable for the comparative study of cartilages with humans ". It is planned to launch trials on humans with about fifteen volunteers.

Aurelie Giraud

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