Injuries to joints are among the most common causes of lost training days or premature retirement in equine athletes. Stem cells hold the promise of novel therapeutic approaches to these difficult-to-treat problems.
A Standardbred horse in motion
Large cartilage defects are a challenge to treat, but so-called cartilage chips have shown significant clinical promise in human medicine and have potential in treatment of horses.
© 2017 by Izzypie
Researcher Thomas G. Koch. Associate Professor | DVM Copenhagen, PhD Guelph, is working to determine if Vitrified Equine MSC Cartilage is effective as cartilage repair in horses.
Large cartilage defects are a challenge to treat, but so-called cartilage chips have shown significant clinical promise in human medicine, regardless of whether the cartilage was sourced from juvenile human cadavers, unrelated adult cadavers, or from the patient.
Preclinical work in the horse model has also shown promising results using cartilage harvested from the joints of horses. However, current cartilage chip methods are hampered by a limited supply of donor material, risk of disease transmission, suboptimal graft tissue, and donor site morbidity.
Donor age, comorbidities, and harvest site may also negatively influence the biological potency of present cartilage and cell grafting methods.
We propose to solve these issues by using cartilage generated in the laboratory from equine cord blood mesenchymal stromal cells (eCB-MSC).
We will vitrify (cryopreserve) the cartilage tissue for indefinite storage and availability as an off-the-shelf live-cell cartilage graft that can be implanted using standard surgical methods. We are seeking support to establish a robust vitrification protocol for eCB-MSC-derived neocartilage.
This work will generate pivotal data to support the clinical evaluation of cryopreserved allogenic eCBMSC cartilage chips to repair focal cartilage defects in research horses.
Fully implemented, this therapy would provide a safe, efficacious, and technically simple treatment for horses as well as provide an opportunity for a Canadian biotechnology business to bank and distribute vitrified cartilage tissue in unlimited quantities to the world market.
Press release by University of Guelph - Research report by Thomas G. Koch, Associate Professor, DVM