A FOOTBALLER and a skier undergoing knee surgery in a Barcelona hospital have become the first patients to receive Tissue Regenix’s decellularised tendons as part of a clinical safety study.
York-based Tissue Regenix develops medical products specifically around tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Its latest development, OrthoPure XT decellularised tendons, removes DNA and other cellular material from tissue which means it won’t be rejected by the patient’s body and so the surgeon can make a like-for-like repair.
Peter Hamer, commercial director of orthopaedics at Tissue Regenix, said: “This is an exciting time for Orthopaedics at Tissue Regenix. The beginning of the OrthoPure™ XT clinical trial is the next step towards securing regulatory approval to launch in 2017.
“The main surgical options for this type of injury are currently limited to taking tissue from the patient, human donor material and, to a much lesser extent, using synthetics. An ‘off the shelf’ biologic replacement would represent a significant step forward in this type of surgery.”
The tendons used in the surgery procedures yesterday were for patients who had ruptured their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), an injury that is common among people who play sports that involve impacts and twisting. In 2014, 900,000 ACL procedures were undertaken in Europe and the USA, and Tissue Regenix believes it has developed an effective and cost-efficient solution.
