Eiva Bernotienė

TITLE: Emerging Cell-Based Technologies for the Treatment and Early Diagnosis of Cartilage Disorders

Prevalent cartilage disorders, including osteoarthritis, represent a highly unmet need in tools for early diagnosis and treatment. Osteoarthritis is a chronic debilitating joint disease, characterized by low-grade inflammation, degeneration of joint tissues such as articular cartilage, which has limited self-reparative capacity.

Aging, metabolic disorders, inadequate physical activity, trauma, comorbidities and their long-term treatment may gradually lead to deterioration of cartilage and osteoarthritis progression, which is still virtually impossible to adequately monitor and to which no effective cure is currently available.

However, the rapid progression of cell-based technologies is leading to innovative approaches addressing challenges in osteoarthritis management. Potential of tissue engineering, different types of stem cells, extracellular vesicles has been widely investigated, however with varying success so far. Emerging cell-based technologies currently under development or already on the way to implementation, as well as the main challenges in routine diagnostics, disease monitoring and therapy will be overviewed.