Swiss doctors use nasal cells to repair damaged knees

Doctors in Switzerland have reported successfully using cartilage cells harvested from patients’ own noses to produce cartilage transplants to treat the knees of 10 adults (aged 18-55 years) whose cartilage was damaged by injury. Two years after reconstruction, most recipients reported improvements in pain, knee function, and quality of life, as well as developing repair tissue that was similar in composition to native cartilage.