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Regenerative medicine

Cartilage stem cells identified, but can they heal?

Regeneration of articular cartilage has been a long-standing challenge in the field of regenerative medicine. In the past 2 years, several studies have genetically identified the presence of stem cells in the surface of articular cartilage, but questions remain as to the healing properties of these cells.

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Figure 1: Developmental origin and healing capacity of PRG4+ stem cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Olga Kharchenko for assistance in drawing Figure 1. The work of both authors is supported financially by the Swedish Research Council (grant number 2016–02835), the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and by a grant from Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Russia.

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Correspondence to Andrei S. Chagin.

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Chagin, A., Medvedeva, E. Cartilage stem cells identified, but can they heal?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 13, 522–524 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2017.127

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