Research shows autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is a promising treatment for articular cartilage lesions. In this study, Shirish Pathak et al assessed mid-term efficacy and safety of gel-based ACI or autologous adult live cultured chondrocytes implantation in patients with cartilage defects of the knee joint. The study was published in "International Orthopaedics" journal.
In this prospective, open-label study, patients (19–38 years) with focal, international cartilage repair society grade III or IV articular cartilage defects of the knee joint were enrolled at four centres across India.
Punch biopsy was conducted to harvest cartilage, from which chondrocytes were isolated and cultured, and the characterised chondrocytes were implanted into the cartilage defect. Key efficacy outcomes were assessed by quantitative changes in international knee documentation committee (IKDC), visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, and qualitative changes in magnetic resonance imaging at six months and four years from baseline.
• Of the14 patients enrolled in the study, all patients completed the six month follow-up and 11 completed the four year follow-up.
• The IKDC score improved significantly from 32.84±9.25 at baseline to 67.49±13.03 at six months (mean difference [MD] 34.66±13.00, p < 0.0001) and to 60.18±10.33 at four years (MD 28.21±15.14, p=0.0001).
• The VAS score reduced from 72.00±14.40 at baseline to 16.64±17.03 at six months (MD 55.36±24.50, p< 0.0001) and further to 12.72±9.05 at four years (MD 62.09±10.66, p< 0.0001).
• All patients showed improvement on MRI of the knee joint.
• No adverse events were reported.
The authors concluded that - this study shows that gel-based ACI alleviates pain and improves functional activity with no side-effects in patients with articular cartilage defects of the knee. Overall, CARTIGROW® showed good mid-term efficacy; however, substantiating these results in real clinical setting would be of future interest.
Further reading:
Efficacy and safety of CARTIGROW® in patients with articular cartilage defects of the knee joint: a four year prospective studys
Shirish Pathak, Deepak Chaudhary, K. Raghuveer Reddy et al
International Orthopaedics (2022) 46:1313–1321
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-022-05369-2