New work on knee cartilage structure to aid better replacements and injury treatments

Fibrocartilage tissue in the knee is comprised of a more varied molecular structure than researchers previously appreciated, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware. Their work informs ways to better treat such injuries as knee meniscus tears – treatment of which are the most common orthopaedic surgery in the United States — and age-related tissue degeneration, both of which can have significant socioeconomic and quality-of-life costs. The team published their work this week online ahead of print in Nature Materials.