Author Archives: Deborah Song

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Orthopedic Experts at Rush Are First in the U.S. to Examine New Stem Cell Therapy for Damaged Knee Cartilage

Dr. Brian ColeOrthopedic experts at Rush University Medical Center are conducting the nation’s first clinical study of an innovative stem cell drug, Cartistem, to repair knee cartilage damaged by aging, trauma or degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis.

Cartistem is manufactured from mesenchymal stem cells derived from allogeneic (donor) umbilical cord blood.  Umbilical cord blood is a readily accessible source of high-quality stem cells, is associated with minimal health risks and carries relatively few ethical concerns.

The stem cells are mixed with hyaluronan, a natural polymer that plays a major role in wound healing and is a building block of joint cartilage.  Cartistem is surgically administered into the area of cartilage damage following an arthroscopic surgery as an adjunct to microfracture, a commonly used technique used to repair cartilage damage.

The principal investigator on the study is Dr. Brian Cole, a professor in the department of orthopedics and anatomy and cell biology at Rush University Medical Center.  Dr. Cole is the head of Rush’s Cartilage Restoration Center and is also the head team physician for the Chicago Bulls.  Cole and his co-researchers will assess the drug’s safety as well as its ability to regenerate cartilage repair tissue and reduce pain in patients with localized cartilage loss in the knee.

Treating cartilage damage can be problematic because the tissue does not contain blood vessels or nerves and therefore has a limited ability to re-grow. Various treatments for cartilage degeneration, such as drug therapy, arthroscopy and joint replacement, yield mixed results and are unable to regenerate damaged tissue.

 The two-year, phase I/IIa study will enroll a total of 12 participants aged 18 years and older, with a body mass index of less than 35. Initially, six individuals with lesions sized 2 to 5 centimeters will be recruited into the study; an additional six volunteers with lesions larger than 5 centimeters will be enrolled sequentially. Each participant will undergo eligibility screening followed by a 12-month observation period to determine the safety and efficacy of the drug with an additional long-term follow-up evaluation at 24 months.

Read the entire news release.

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Return to Haiti: Jeff Mjaanes’ Blog

Dr. Jeff Mjaanes, orthopedic specialist at Rush University Medical Center, has returned to Haiti to help with ongoing disaster relief efforts and is blogging about his experience in the field. Mjaanes was part of a team of Rush doctors and nurses who volunteered to help with disaster relief efforts in Haiti in 2010 just after the earthquake hit.

Mjaanes has been having trouble getting Internet service during the day, but he just sent us an update and a few pictures.  

Tuesday, October 16, 2012, at 8 p.m. CT: Went to another marginal community today on outskirts. Saw 200 people. Most of these folks have no access to health care for even basic needs.

Saw a 35 yo man who escaped a collapsing building during the quake. Jumped two floors to ground. Injured left knee – had surgery at the time – opened him and closed him, saying there’s nothing that could be done. Now he has bone on bone arthritis with avascular necrosis and needs a knee replacement. Four kids and a wife depend on him and he can’t work – all he wants is a normal knee and to work to provide for his family.

So many sad stories – but also many positive ones as well. We work with some fantastic Haitians who are dedicated to these communities and are helping us set up networks with local health care providers to provide for long-term help. Many amazing people … they are what makes this crazy world work!

Monday, October 15, 2012, at 7 a.m. CT: First full day in Haiti done. Lots of folks in tent city Jerusalem. Boy who has been beaten by father for poor grades, turns out he has amblyopia and can’t see. Needs glasses. We’ll get him some. It’s hot and humid but VERY rewarding! Tuesday, we’re off to a different community.

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Return to Haiti: Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes’ Blog

Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes with a 10-year-old Haitian boy, who broke his hand and foot after the earthquake in 2010.

Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes, orthopedic specialist at Rush University Medical Center, went with a team of doctors and nurses from Rush to Haiti after the earthquake hit to help with disaster relief efforts in 2010.

Two years later, Mjaanes fulfills his promise to himself to return to Haiti on another mission for ongoing disaster relief efforts.

Mjaanes decided to take a Flip Cam to take a video diary on this trip back. He will be sending updates to us from the field using Facebook and instant messaging.

Here is Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes’ first blog entry: 

Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 1 p.m. CT:

I’m about to head back to Haiti for the first time since 2010. My first trip was with the Rush group that went 10 days after the earthquake in January 2010 that decimated the capital, Port- au-Prince and the country. We had to fly into the Dominican Republic as the PAP airport was damaged. We saw so many acute injuries and the immediate devastation first-hand.

This time we are flying into PAP directly. We will be spending the week again in and around some of the hardest hit areas.

I am excited to see Haitian friends I met on the first trip and to see the changes that have occurred since that first visit.

Our Rush team looks great – once again a collection of doctors, nurses, residents, students and therapists.

I will keep the Rush community updated with blog entries, photos and video.

JMM

Dr. Jeff Mjaanes
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics & Orthopedic Surgery
Rush University Medical Center

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Renowned Kidney Disease Physician and Scientist Joins Rush as New Chairman of Internal Medicine

Nephrologist Dr. Jochen Reiser has been named chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center.  Reiser, who joined Rush on Sept. 1, will also serve as the Ralph C. Brown MD professor of internal medicine at Rush University.

“Dr. Reiser is a world-renowned research leader in the field of proteinuric kidney disease.  He is credited with finding a major cause of a significant form of chronic kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis,” said Dr. Thomas Deutsch, dean of Rush Medical College, provost of Rush University. “He will be a major asset to Rush and we are fortunate to have his leadership in the department of internal medicine.”

Reiser comes to Rush from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine where he was the Peggy and Harold Katz Family professor of medicine, anatomy and cell biology. He was also the vice chairman for research in the department of medicine, chief of the division of nephrology and hypertension and the founding director of the Peggy and Harold Katz family drug discovery institute.  Prior to joining Rush, he also served as interim chairman of medicine for Miami.

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19th-Century Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease May Help Patients Today

Charcot's vibratory chair (fauteuil tr´epidant) constructed in the nineteenth century and the vibration chair (NexNeuro) with headphones, CD player, and amplifier utlized by Rush researchers.

In the 19th century, Jean-Martin Charcot, the celebrated neurologist, developed a “vibration chair,” to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Charcot reported improvements in his patients, but he died shortly thereafter and a more complete evaluation of the therapy was never conducted. Now, more than 100 years later, a group of neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have replicated his work in a study to see if Charcot’s observation holds true against modern scientific testing.

Results from the study indicate that while vibration therapy does significantly improve some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, the effect is due to placebo or other nonspecific factors, and not the vibration. The findings are published in the April issue of Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

“We attempted to mimic Charcot’s protocol with modern equipment in order to confirm or refute an historical observation,” explains lead investigator Christopher G. Goetz, MD, director of the Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders Center at Rush. “Both the treated group and the control group improved similarly, suggesting other factors had an effect on Parkinson’s disease motor function.”

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