Collection of Bone Marrow during Orthopaedic Surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Collection of Bone Marrow during Orthopaedic Surgery for use in Scientific Research
IRAS ID
186810
Contact name
Ashley Blom
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Azellon Limited
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
There are two pieces of fibrous tissue in our knees called the menisci that cushion the bone-ends. They are shock-absorbers and help the knee joint to cope with the extreme stresses. The menisci are commonly torn as a result of a sporting injury, causing pain and swelling. In the majority of cases the damaged portion of the meniscus has to be removed. Adult stem cells are found in all of us. They are non-specialised cells that can grow extensively and can be turned into many different kinds of specialised cell. Cell Bandage technology combines bone marrow stem cells with a special membrane that helps to deliver the cells into the injured site so that they can repair the tear. We have already tried this in a small number of patients treated using their own stem cells at Southmead Hospital as part of a Phase I/IIa study, and we saw good improvement in several of them. This small trial has taught us a lot about our novel treatment and we now need to make some improvements to our technology so that it is more effective and come be made available to a larger number of patients. In particular we want to use bone marrow stem cells that have been extensively grown in culture to create a large number of Cell Bandages that can be stored frozen (cryopreserved) before use. The laboratory work in this project will help us to know how best to grow the cells and how best to freeze the Cell Bandage. It is intended that the results from this work will lead on to a second clinical trial of Cell Bandage in the future.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SW/0268
Date of REC Opinion
29 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion