Osteoarthritis Term Paper

The human body is made up of a variety of cells, tissues, organs and an organ system. Diseases can affect any component of this structural hierarchy. Diseases that affect certain tissues such as cartilage and bones are largely responsible for the pain and immobility many humans can suffer from. Osteoarthritis, a cartilage disease, is the most common form of arthritis. It can affect any joint in the human body, such as the hip, knee, spine, and joints in the fingers. Osteoarthritis results in the destruction of joint cartilage, which if destroyed, the cartilage cannot regenerate on its own (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). Several kinds of research are being conducted to find a definite cure for Osteoarthritis. New treatment methods include cartilage cell replacement, stem cell transplantation, and gene therapy. Most notably, cartilage cell replacement is evolving as a treatment modality in various centers. Using growth factors, a damaged …show more content…
For an artificial cartilage to be developed, a combination of biomaterials and cells are required. Researchers have developed biomaterials, but they fail to match with the native cartilage; when an artificial cartilage is developed and placed in a damaged part of the body, it might fail to heal that body part because of the inability to produce similar native biomaterials (Bhardwaj, Devi & Mandal, 2014). Therefore, understanding the changes in the matrix composition is an absolute necessity before placing the engineered tissue in the joint. There are various techniques to assess the compositional changes within an engineered cartilage, but most are destructive. Therefore, the problem addressed here is of the artificial cartilage losing viability and dying when placed directly into the spectrometer. So, it is necessary to build a system that can prevent the cartilage