Patrick Whitlock, MD, PhD, co-director of the Hip Preservation Program, is leading a new program centered on tissue engineering and using regenerative medicine to treat orthopaedic conditions in the pediatric and adolescent patient. The program goals are threefold:

• To develop novel technologies to improve the care of pediatric patients, specifically in the areas of cartilage and osteochondral injuries.
• To further understand the mechanisms involved in injuries to cartilage and osteochondral tissue and investigate methods of potentially manipulating them to improve patient healing.
• To create an environment in which there is improved collaboration between orthopaedic surgeons, engineers, molecular biologists and radiologists regarding tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as it relates to pediatric and adolescent orthopaedic injuries.

Initially, the group plans to focus on developing a new clinical strategy that utilizes tissue engineering; specifically, three dimensionally (3-D) printed scaffolds that create tissue without the addition of exogenous cells or significant manipulation and can therefore be used across a broad spectrum of patients. This is possible because they will print on material that itself contains growth factors that will drive the formation of the desired tissue. This novel approach means the scaffold material itself will able to induce cartilage formation without the addition of exogenous growth factors or cells of any kind.

The program is a translational research initiative right now, not yet close to clinical trials. The foundation has been laid and Whitlock’s team is part of a concerted, multi-institutional initiative to support collaboration between the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati and surgeon-scientists at Cincinnati Children’s who wish to develop clinically translatable technologies for problems across all surgical sub-specialties. The group has begun to develop their technology; now they are optimizing it and preparing to conduct in vivo studies in the next year.

All of this has happened in the last 14 months.

“We’re fortunate to have a tremendous amount of support,” says Whitlock. “We’ve developed a highly collaborative group of dedicated researchers who are committed to investigating these novel solutions, and I believe we are well positioned for success.”

Human stem cells adhering and differentiating into cartilage in the presence of our decellularized osteochondral matrix.