Now, a jab that can help fight against arthritis

Researchers have developed a new revolutionary procedure that could help prevent the disease ever striking in the first place.

The injection uses the technique that involves coating damaged cartilage with stem cells taken from a patient's own hip and mixed with surgical glue, the Daily Express reported.

Gorav Datta, consultant orthopaedic surgeon of Southampton General Hospital said that the new procedure, known as ABICUS, should cost just a few hundred pounds and could be widely used across the country within two years.

The development of this technique and the study they were conducting could revolutionise the treatment of common cartilage injury by creating a like-for-like, identical cartilage replacement for the first time.

More than eight million Britons suffer from osteoarthritis, which occurs when cartilage, flexible tissue that covers the surface of joints and enables bones to slide over each other, wears away, leading to pain and stiffness.

During the 30-minute procedure, the sample was spun in a centrifuge in the operating theatre to give a concentrated amount of cells which were then mixed with a gel and acid to create a glue-like substance which was injected over the cartilage defect and allowed to set. The cartilage then regenerated.

The technique has been currently been tested on hips and knees, because they were the major weight-bearing joints and were the ones most commonly surgically replaced. But it has been believed that it could be used for other joints such as ankles and shoulders.