Research Points to Bioengineering Knee Replacements on Earth, and Astronauts' Bone Issues in Space.

13 December 2017

University of Alberta surgical researchers are using a NASA-designed device that models weightlessness to develop technologies that could lead to bioengineering knee replacements. The research also suggests that astronauts on prolonged missions could develop bone development problems.

The work, which includes stem cell research, has been published in Nature Microgravity. The lead researcher Adetola Adesida, Associated Professor in the Division of Orthopedic surgery, whose lab houses the NASA technology says, "The work was done on earth in a special device that is able to simulate weightlessness. The work published is our first contribution in the microgravity research space."

Nature Microgravity's editorial summary says "Co-culture of meniscal cartilage-forming cells with fat-derived stem cells can lead to enhanced cartilage matrix production when cultured under simulated microgravity. Adetola Adesida from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and colleagues cultured two types of cells found together in the knee-cartilage-forming chondrocyte cells (taken from the meniscus) and mesenchymal stem cells (isolated from the infrapatellar fat pad)-in a rotary cell culture system designed to model weightlessness on Earth. Simulated microgravity enhanced the synergistic interaction between the two types of cells in culture, resulting in more matrix production, but it also prompted the cartilage-forming cells to differentiate towards bone-forming cells, as evidenced by gene expression analysis. These findings suggest that microgravity and simulated microgravity-based culture technologies could help bioengineers grow knee replacements for people with meniscus tears, but increased bone-directed differentiation could pose a possible problem for astronauts on prolonged missions."