First signs of arthritis cure seen by Irish researchers

The first signs of a cure for arthritis have been seen in research involving Irish scientists.

The debilitating disease which affects more than 400,000 people in this country and more than 70 million EU citizens is normally treated by surgery to replace joints or life-long pain management.

But the work at NUI Galway and other European universities in a €9m EU-funded project is using stem cells from patients themselves that are in plentiful supply. The researchers are using cells derived from body fat and injecting it into diseased joints to see how well it can regenerate the cartilage whose degeneration causes the pain of osteoarthritis.