Project Details
Projekt
Arthrosetherapie: Optimierung von osteochondralen allogenen Transplantaten mittels 5-Aminolävulinat basierter photodynamischer Therapie
Applicant
Dr. Johannes Dominik Bastian
Subject Area
Orthopaedics, Traumatology, Reconstructive Surgery
Term
from 2005 to 2007
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5456737
A therapeutical option for the treatment of articular cartilage lesions is the use of allogenous osteochondral grafts ¿ a tissue composed of cartilage and bone, which transplanted from adonor to a recipient. The immunological reaction of the recipient against the cells in theforeign bone tissue, however, interferes with the clinical outcome of the grafts. In contrast,the cartilage is not recognized by the recipient s immune system. By removing the cellularcomponents of the bone, immunological reaction will be diminished and clinical outcome ofthis repair technique may be improved. Recent experiments suggested that 5-aminolevulinicacid based photodynamic therapy (5-ALA-PDT), which depends on the presence of a photosensitive substance and light, may be a means to achieve this goal. By applying 5-ALA-PDT on cell cultures from the bone (osteoblasts, fibroblasts and bone marrow cells) cell death was induced. In contrast, cartilage cells were resistant to this treatment. To scale up from cell to organ culture, 5-ALA-PDT will be applied on bovine osteochondral tissue. To consider this treatment as successful, the osseous portion of the grafts have to be devitalized while the cartilage remains viable. This will be analyzed using histological techniques and confocal microscopy. The proposed study is of importance to explore the optimal conditions and the feasibility of 5-ALA-PDT in the pretreatment of osteochondral grafts. The results will have a high impact whether in vivo experiments can and will be performed to ascertain further the proposed hypothesis.
DFG Programme
Research Fellowships
International Connection
Switzerland
