Usually this question comes up with regard to the types of cartilage that act as shock absorbers between bones (like all around your knee joint). Cartilage has a very sluggish blood supply to it, so any damage to cartilage is slow to self-repair. Ordinary wear and tear to cartilage also wears it down between joints. This can lead to arthritis and a lot of pain.
Medical advancements in this area have been tremendous in the last ten years, though. There are a few ways to get to cartilage to regrow. A scaffolding can be built out of other materials which any existing cartilage tissue will regrow. it is hard to encourage the new growth, though.
The more promising development is extracting the patient's own cells and culturing these outside the body (in a laboratory). This is enormously successful in some patients. When enough new cartilage has grown, it is replaced in the body. There is no risk of immune system rejection because the cells are the patients own. This is still an expensive procedure and also somewhat limited by the nature of the joint deterioration, but it has a promising future.
Medical advancements in this area have been tremendous in the last ten years, though. There are a few ways to get to cartilage to regrow. A scaffolding can be built out of other materials which any existing cartilage tissue will regrow. it is hard to encourage the new growth, though.
The more promising development is extracting the patient's own cells and culturing these outside the body (in a laboratory). This is enormously successful in some patients. When enough new cartilage has grown, it is replaced in the body. There is no risk of immune system rejection because the cells are the patients own. This is still an expensive procedure and also somewhat limited by the nature of the joint deterioration, but it has a promising future.
