Experimental results on the successful in vitro growth ofcartilage and bone tissues were reported in five separatepresentations at Thursday's annual meeting of the OrthopedicResearch Society in San Francisco.

The researchers, from Boston's Children's Hospital andMassachusetts General Hospital, the Deborah Heart & LungInstitute in Brown Mills, N.J., Creighton University in Omaha,Neb., and Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (ATS), used ATS'sproprietary tissue engineering technology in their experiments.

The scientists also reported that the three-dimensional boneand cartilage tissues grown in vitro secreted extracellularmatrix proteins and retained biomechanical propertiesanalogous to those of the tissues native to the human body. Inaddition, tissues grown in vitro and subsequently transplantedinto cranial defects in animals were able to repair damagedtissue.

"The data represent a significant advancement in ourunderstanding of cartilage and bone tissue growth and theimplications of these tissues for reconstructive and orthopedicsurgery," said Gail Naughton, executive vice president and chiefoperating officer of the La Jolla, Calif., company (NASDAQATIS).

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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