IT WAS A tiny tissue tear that became a major setback in the career of Chelsea defender and Ghanaian international Michael Essien in recent years. The same injury also routinely ruins the fun of millions of weekend warriors.

Now a new technology using pig tissue may save those careers and undo the painful damage from a torn meniscus in the knee. The removal of damaged meniscus tissue is one of the most common orthopaedic procedures in the world and is a major cause of osteo-arthritis.

While replacing damaged meniscus with donor tissue helps to reduce pain and restore normal range of motion, a shortage of donors has limited the scope of such operations. That may soon change.

Tissue Regenix, which is based in York, in England, is developing a new product using material from pigs that holds the hope of producing abundant quantities of tissue.

“A product that restores normal function of the meniscus and prevents or delays the development of arthritis would have huge demand,” said Marc Galloway, an orthopaedic surgeon and spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Galloway isn’t involved in Tissue Regenix’s research.

The menisci are made of c-shaped cartilage that serve as shock absorbers for the knees. Currently, tears are treated through surgical repairs with stitches, a fifth of which fail, or partial removal of damaged portions.

The market for these procedures is about $3 billion (€2.4 billion), according to Peel Hunt LLP, a British broker. Tissue Regenix’s dCELL technology involves taking animal tissue and removing cellular material from it that would cause humans to reject

the implant.

That allows doctors to use the stripped tissue without anti-rejection drugs to replace worn out or diseased body parts. Once implanted, the cellular scaffold is repopulated with the patient’s own stem cells.

This decellularisation technology may also potentially be applied to heart valves and wound care.

Data from a pre-clinical trial for the meniscus application will be released this year, with a trial in humans to start next year, according to chief executive Antony Odell.

The company may file for approval as early as 2014, he added. – (Bloomberg)