José Luis Gómez Ribelles has received the “BEST IDEAS 2016” award granted by DIARIO MÉDICO to the best ideas of the year in the field of health on November 28, 2016 in the Research and Pharmacology branch on behalf of the Center of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Valencia thanks to the Design of an implant for the regeneration of articular cartilage.
This study has been carried out by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Biomedical Research Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Network (CIBER-BBN) -dependent of the Carlos III Health Institute- the University of Valencia and the Hospital del Mar de Barcelona His work has been published in The International Journal of Artificial Organs.
In their study, the researchers evaluated the response of the implant at 4.5 months and according to the results obtained, the regeneration, if not complete, does present a “positive trend”.
The main novelty of the implant tested by the researchers is the design of a biodegradable sponge together with a subchondral bone anchoring system that fixes the implant at the site of the lesion.
The articular cartilage is the cover that develops the bone in the area next to another, and serves as protection to prevent both bones from rubbing when moving with each other. This cover can be altered by mechanical causes, that is, by blows, sharp turns or continuous overloads in cases of athletes, or by aging, evolving into osteoarthritis.
According to José Luis Gómez Ribelles, director of the Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering of the UPV and researcher of the CIBER-BBN, when a cartilage injury occurs, one of the therapies that are currently applied in clinic for regeneration is to produce microperforations in the subchondral bone, what is called microfacture.
“This causes blood to run and this clot; Regeneration occurs but it is not adequate because the stem cells that reach the site of the lesion do not find the proper biomechanical environment. To alleviate this defect, in this study we propose the use of a biodegradable porous sponge that is implanted at the site of the lesion, anchored to the subchondral bone with the screw we have designed. Their pores fill with blood, receive mesenchymal cells and create new tissue with characteristics much more similar to natural tissue than with microfracture alone- ”, says Gómez Ribelles.

Among the advantages that the researchers have observed in the tests carried out with the animal model, it is especially important that the anchorage between the matrix and the subchondral bone is produced, generating much less bone damage than with other implants. The results of this experimental implant have improved those obtained by the authors in a human clinic with another type of matrix and anchor (Gelber et al. 2015).