Reversal of Aging of Human Cartilage, Restoring Youthfulness; the First of Its Kind Feat by Edogawa Hospital, Japan.

TOKYO

Cartilage of the knee joint, when severely damaged by age related wear and tear or injury or osteoarthritis, which is removed and usually discarded, during joint replacement surgery, now could be rejuvenated, becoming a potential source of cells for cell therapy through a disruptive technology that reverses aging, confirmed by Senescence associated ß-Galactosidase, p16 and p21, markers, published in Scientific Reports (www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93607-9), a Nature journal. A conversation between (Late) Prof. Masatoshi Koshiba, (Nobel Laureate, 2002) and Dr. Masahiro Katoh on whether his aging joints could be rejuvenated, inspired orthopedician Dr Shojiro Katoh to develop a path breaking EELS-TALC technique (Enriched with Essentials and Lapped in Scaffold, Transplant-suitable Autologous Leveraged Chondrocytes), making this accomplishment.

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Prof. Masatoshi Koshiba (Nobel Laureate; Sitting Rt.) who initiated the idea of restoring youthfulness of cells in the lab with Dr Masahiro Katoh (Sitting Lt; Chairman, Edogawa Hospital), who accomplished Prof. Koshiba’s wishes, helped by Dr Shojiro Katoh (Standing Rt; President, Edogawa Hospital), led team including Dr. Samuel JK Abraham (Standing Lt) (Photo: Business Wire)

Aging of human body, its organs, tissues and cells is irreversible and in the lab environments, aging is much faster than inside the body. However, EELS-TALC technology has disrupted this conventional belief by making tissues younger, through tissue engineering in a chemically synthesized polymer scaffold, under physical maneuver of orbital shaking in the lab, without genetic manipulation or animal derived products, thus paving way to solutions that, when similar environment is made available inside the body, such reversal of aging might be possible.

EELS TALC cultured chondrocytes have all ideal characteristics, worth recommending as the most suitable in ACI and MACI treatments:

(i) Yielding Hyaline cartilage native to articular joints:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2017.01.003

(ii) Hyaluronic acid enrichment, ideal for better healing:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2021.02.019

(iii) Enhanced miRNA140, a hall mark of healthy cartilage:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119553

(iv) Chondroprogenitors, mesenchymal stem cells grown from damaged tissues:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2021.01.005

(v) Pluripotency marker expression and tissue like growth:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reth.2020.03.006

(vi) Increased telomere length, proving youthfulness:
Presented at meetings of British Society of Developmental Biology – Genetics Society & British Society of Gerontology; 2021.

(vii) Lower SA-ß-Gal, p16, p21; confirming the reversal of aging:
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93607-9

(viii) Pre-clinical studies proving, success in vivo:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jor.2017.01.003

EELS-TALC method is safe as it does not involve genomic alterations, oncogenes, viruses, or complex growth factors. Now, Dr. Katoh is evaluating ideal transportation of tissues and cells between the hospital and the lab based on earlier reported OPTRACT method (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-021-03116-y) and additional safety parameters, supported by EELS, JBM Inc, GN Corporation and NCRM, India, before starting clinical studies.

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