Regeneration Implant Enables Stem Cells to Grow Cartilage

The implant scaffold, made of coral, reproducibly regenerates hyaline cartilage and its underlying subchondral bone in a single-step procedure. Once the size of the defect is determined, a hole is prepared in the affected area and the implant is inserted in a press fit manner. Blood immediately infiltrates the interconnected pores of the implant, beginning a biological cascade culminating in bone and hyaline cartilage regeneration through migration, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to simultaneously regenerate both bone and cartilage.

Within a few months, the top layer becomes true hyaline cartilage while the bottom layer turns to bone, with each tissue genetically identical to the body’s own tissues. The regenerated cells gradually biodegrade the implanted scaffold over time. The rigid, biphasic, implant is composed of biocompatible and biodegradable materials. The bone phase of the implant is composed of calcium carbonate in aragonite crystalline form, while the cartilage phase is a composite of modified aragonite and hyaluronic acid (HA). The Agili-C implant is a product of CartiHeal (Kfar Saba, Israel).

“Our clinical results to date confirm rapid cartilage and bone formation, as clearly visible on MRIs and X-rays. The newly formed cartilage is hyaline cartilage, the body’s native cartilage, distinguished by its specific type of collagen,” said Nir Altschuler, founder and CEO of CartiHeal. “Other experimental treatments generate only “hyaline-like” cartilage, which is actually a nonlasting fibrous tissue rather than the real deal.”

Hyaline cartilage is glossy blue-white in appearance and very resilient, and is the most widespread type of cartilage and makes up the embryonic skeleton. It persists in human adults at the ends of bones in free-moving joints such as the articular cartilage, at the ends of the ribs, and in the nose, larynx, trachea, and bronchi.

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