HealthDay reports nose cartilage cells can be safely used to generate replacement cartilage for the knee according to an early study published in Science Translational Medicine.

HSS sports medicine surgeon Andreas H. Gomoll, MD, who was not involved in the study, provided comments on the findings.

Currently, there are ways to repair some degree of cartilage damage in the knee, which include moving cartilage from a non-weight-bearing part of the knee to fill in the defect in the injured cartilage. But as Dr. Gomoll explained, “Those treatments are used when there is a limited area of cartilage damage, such as a tear from a sports injury.”

Dr. Gomoll put the scenario into the context that if a road has a single pothole, but the pavement around it is sound, you can simply fill in the pothole. But if the road is riddled with potholes, that won't work, and “knee osteoarthritis is akin to the latter scenario,” he said.

Dr. Gomoll underscored that osteoarthritis is more complicated than simply a cartilage defect because there is inflammation and damage to other joint structures. There are also patient factors that contribute to the condition, such as being overweight or "bow-legged" (as the two study patients were), and even genetics.

Read the full article at Consumer.healthday.com.