BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh University and St. Luke’s University Health Network are teaming up to look into how people can delay the need for joint replacements.
The research is currently underway with funds from the National Institutes of Health.
- Lehigh University and St. Luke's University Health Network are working together to create a biomaterial that would help regenerate cartilage
- The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health
- This could help people replace or delay the need for a joint replacement
The research project underway at Lehigh University aims to try to find a way to 3D print a biomaterial that is similar to cartilage, so it can be used to regenerate that cartilage in the body and therefore delay joint replacement.
“We have no way today of repairing cartilage injury," said Dr. Gregory Carolan, an orthopedic surgeon from St. Luke's University Health Network working on this medical development.
"And cartilage injury, articular cartilage injury, can begin that process of this debilitating disease called osteoarthritis.
“The Holy Grail in orthopedic surgery has been for, I would say, four or five decades, trying to figure out how can we repair articular cartilage,” said Carolan, who serves as section chief of orthopedic sports medicine and shoulder surgery.
Alongside Carolan in the new research is Lesley Chow. She is an associate professor in material science and engineering and bioengineering at Lehigh University.
"You hear about all these injuries, especially in young women, where they have this injury and then when they're in their 50s or 60s, they're starting to have joint replacements," Chow said. “Unacceptable to me, right? It doesn't make any sense.
“The Holy Grail in orthopedic surgery has been for, I would say, four or five decades, trying to figure out how can we repair articular cartilage."Dr. Gregory Carolan, orthopedic surgeon, St. Luke's University Health Network
“We're trying to develop something where we could produce the tissue. We could make these 3D printed scaffolds that are implantable, they can go in the body, they'll degrade over time, and they're just sort of telling your body we would like you to regenerate."
The researchers explained that instead of letting an injury get worse over time, the material they are trying to develop could be used to treat the injury sooner.
“By the time you feel the effects of that early injury, that maybe happened 20-30 years ago, instead of you having to deal with that when it's way too late, could we intervene very early and then you never have to go through the joint replacement in the first place,” Chow said.
Carolan said that type of medical advancement would make it possible to relieve pain in people who otherwise cannot get a joint replacement.
However, it needs to meet multiple standards.
“We need shelf stability, we need affordability, you need ability to not just work for the knee or for the hip or for the shoulder or for the jaw or for the wrist or for whatever," Carolan said. "It needs to be applicable to all these different joints.”
With the 3D printing technology, the researchers are confident they would be able to print the scaffold to match the patient's exact needs and measurements.
They said although this research is currently underway at Lehigh University, clinical trials on humans would not happen for at least five to 10 years. The next step would be animal clinical trials.
