Nose2knee – Scientific Rationale for Use of Nasal Chondrocytes in Articular Cartilage Repair

Articular cartilage injuries remain a clinical challenge and are known to double the incidence of degenerative joint disorders if left untreated. Current therapeutic options suffer from major drawbacks, such as defect-size limitations, long and complex rehabilitation times, donor-site morbidity and limited graft material. Even the more advanced cell-based therapies show highly variable clinical outcome and provide not entirely satisfactory treatment. Moreover, due to the use of articular chondrocytes (AC) their applicability for elder patients is limited, since the capacity of AC to redifferentiate and generate a functional matrix is limited, extremely donor dependent and is reduced with increasing donor age. The use of nasal chondrocytes (NC) could overcome these limitations.