Production and maintenance of tissue-engineered human osteochondral grafts

EpiBone is a company engineering living, anatomically precise and functionally mature skeletal grafts from autologous stem cells. Cartilage injuries affect approximately 900K Americans with >400K procedures performed every year. Cartilage lesions are frequently associated with other articular injuries and can progress to joint degeneration and osteoarthritis (OA). OA affects20% Americans with costs surpassing $130B per year. Compared to civilian population, active military service members are affected with OA diseases with higher rates and younger ages. OA is among the most common causes of disability in service members who are medically retired or separated from the military. 71% of extremityinjuries suffered by soldiers in recent conflicts have been associated with intra-articular injury. Current therapeutic practices suffer from several drawbacks, thus creating the need for novel, cell-based therapies for regenerating functional cartilage tissue. We here propose to develop a unique class of bioreactor-cultured, stratified, mechanically functional osteochondral grafts for articular cartilage repair that are customized to the patient and defect being treated. The success of our product could have a tremendous impact in ameliorating current standards of treatment for osteochondral defects, representing a definitive solution avoiding morbidity, and leading to faster recovery and return to duty for the injured soldiers.