"Heimspiel Wissenschaft" - possibilities for the treatment of cartilage injuries

Exercise is important for staying fit and healthy into old age.

However, anyone who exercises regularly also knows the downsides that can occur: One wrong turn, one inattentive step - and your knee hurts. This often affects the cartilage that protects and lubricates our joints. Unlike our skin, cartilage only has a limited potential for regeneration. This means that injuries do not heal at all or only inadequately.

Annemarie Neubert (née Ecke) shows why miniature tissue from the laboratory plays a decisive role in the treatment of cartilage injuries. She will look at the current therapies for treating cartilage injuries and discuss the potential of tissue culture for regenerative medicine. Ms Neubert also provides exciting insights into the special features of cartilage tissue and shows how it is possible to produce cartilage for transplantation using the body's own cell and tissue cultures.

Annemarie Neubert, who grew up and went to school in Calbe, has been researching cell-based therapies in the Chair of Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering at the Institute of Biotechnology at BTU since 2018. Her results will be summarised this year with the completion of her doctoral studies on "Cartilage regeneration using a coculture model of human primary chondrocytes and osteoblasts". A combined preparation of cartilage and bone mini-tissues was produced that can be used for transplants or as a test system for new drugs.