Affiliations: Department of Rheumatology, King's College London, London, UK
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Cosimo De Bari, MD, PhD, Department of Rheumatology, King's College London School of Medicine, Thomas Guy House Floor 5, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 20 71881524; Fax: +44 20 71885883; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Cell therapies are unique in that the active component consists of living cells, which are difficult to define in their pharmacologic characteristics, and which produce variable and largely unknown amounts of bioactive molecules. Thus, the definition of the composition of a cellular product, mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and efficacy assessment represent challenges never previously faced by traditional pharmacology. A pressing need for a routine use of cell therapies in the clinic is the development of quality controls for efficacy on the basis of clinically relevant potency assays, with prospective validation in human clinical trials. This review will focus on cell-based protocols for joint surface repair. In particular, we will present the case of autologous chondrocyte implantation as an example of advanced tissue engineering technology in the clinic, with the assumption that many issues discussed can be extrapolated to other cell-based approaches in regenerative medicine.
