If your knees need a repair, the solution could be quite literally in front of your eyes. Cartilage from the nose can be used to fix torn cartilage in the knees, researchers have found.
Ten people have already had nose-to-knee transplants, following trials in goats at the University of Basel.
Cartilage, the tissue which covers and cushions the surface of joints, has little ability to regenerate when damaged. Injuries can be difficult to repair, often requiring complicated surgery and long rehabilitation times.
In the study, described in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists took cartilage cells from the septum and grew them on a miniature scaffold. The engineered graft was then put into the knees to replace damaged cartilage tissue.
They found that the cells,…