CELL-CULTURE AND ORTHOPEDICS .2. MEDICAL APPLICATIONS - DIAGNOSIS, BIOMATERIAL EVALUATION, THERAPY

Currently, cell cultures are used for 3 kinds of applications in ortho paedics : diagnosis : they can help to diagnose hereditary diseases li ke Marfan syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, or some osteochondrodyspl asia. biomaterial evaluation: cell cultures bring information to ensur e safety and efficacy of medical devices following the European Commun ity's directive concerning medical devices. Results of in vitro biomat erial evaluation must be related to cell types (osteoblasts or fibrobl asts), cell species (human or rat) and methods used (primary cell line or immortalised cell line). therapy : first clinical applications of cell cultures have been published recently. They concern cultured auto logous chondrocytes reimplantation. Bone cells cultured on biomaterial s have been tested in animal reimplantation experiments. Animal cells mediated gene therapy experiments are now developed on muscle cells. C ell cultures allow also to determine the best therapeutic way to cure bone tumors. For the moment, these applications are still limited but in the next years, they could develop considerably. Therefore, orthopa edic surgeons must keep interest in this new field.