Animal study showing cartilage regeneration with BST-CarGel®

Clinical trial ongoing.

Focalized cartilage lesions occur in patients as a result of trauma, injury or excessive physical activity or those suffering from “secondary osteoarthritis” (OA). Adult articular cartilage does not have the capacity to repair such structural damage. This limited healing potential arises primarily due to a lack of blood supply and an inadequate response by repair cells. The resulting joint pain and loss of mobility is debilitating for millions of people worldwide.

In many cases, treatment of either acute or chronic focal cartilage injuries involves use of various surgical measures aimed at regenerating cartilage in the damaged area. Bone marrow stimulation (e.g. microfracture), mosaicplasty and autologous chondrocyte implantation are several techniques which are currently used but still have inherent drawbacks.

BST-CarGel® is a promising new therapeutic approach for repair of localized cartilage lesions.

BST-CarGel® is mixed at the time of surgery with the patient’s own blood and applied during minimally-invasive surgery to the surgically prepared lesion. Our animal studies have shown that BST-CarGel® fills and sticks to the cartilage lesion, where it acts as a 3-dimensional scaffold in what is called Scaffold-Guided Regenerative Medicine (SGRM). Due to the chitosan component and its unique tissue-adhesive nature, the residency of BST-CarGel® is maintained. And because the repair of the cartilage occurs within the body, and not in a laboratory, it is termed In Situ ChondroInduction (ICI). The ICI approach offers interesting benefits, as it requires only one surgery and simply guides the repair of the damaged cartilage. Our animal studies have demonstrated that during the regeneration process, BST-CarGel® is completely degraded, as the cartilage naturally regenerates, which results in dramatically improved cartilage repair over matched controls.

How to participate in a clinical trial on BST-CarGel®?

Please contact your orthopedic surgeon for eligibility to participate in to the multi-center clinical trial.

For study details and information on participating centers, please follow this URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00314236