Orthopedics This Week | February 16, 2016

ORTHOPEDICS THIS WEEK VOLUME 12, ISSUE 6 | FEBRUARY 16, 2016 18 Adding Stem Cells to Cartilage Repair: Not Helpful, But... // Athletes: Posterior Instability & RC Tears Do Better Than SLAP Tears and RC Issues // Neck Pain Not Always a Contraindication for Laminoplasty BY ELIZABETH HOFHEINZ, M.P.H., M.ED. A dding Stem Cells to Cartilage Repair: Not Helpful, But... She has commanded an Army image intelligence unit, become an orthopedic surgeon, and is Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Stanford University. Now, Constance Chu, M.D., has led interesting new work published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery investigating the role of mesenchymal stem cells in cartilage repair. This NIHfunded (National Institutes of Health) equine study looked at whether stem cells, specifically, bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMDSMSCs), made a difference in cartilage repair. Dr. Chu told OTW, “Our aim was to determine if adding mesenchymal stem cells to an autologous platelet-enriched fibrin (APEF) scaffold enhances chondral repair more than APEF alone.” “In this study, we culture expanded the appropriate bone marrow cell fraction and performed a randomized double blind study. One side of the horse got the scaffold alone while the other side got the same scaffold that contained the culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cells. Each surgeon—myself and veterinary surgeons Laurie Goodrich and Wayne McIlwraith from Colorado State University—were blinded to what we were putting in. One year later our team reassessed the horses via arthroscopy, histology, and quantitative MRI, as well as biomechanical analysis led by Robert Sah at the University of California San Stem Cells and Constance Chu, M.D./Wikimedia Commons, Robert M. Hunt and Stanford U

Orthopedics This Week | February 16, 2016 | Page 18