Adhesive cartilage implant

Abstract

A method of producing a cartilage implant which may include coating a substrate with a thermo-sensitive polymer, seeding the polymer with a cell suspension comprising cells that may differentiate into chrondocyte-like cells, wherein the seeding may be conducted at a first temperature, culturing the cell suspension at an increased temperature, whereby cells in the suspension may adhere to the polymer and differentiate into chrondrocyte-like cells, which may form a cartilagenous implant, and decreasing the temperature of the polymer which may allow detachment of the implant from the polymer. The present invention may also include an implant based on this method. The invention may further include a cartilage implant for use in a patient in need thereof, which may include a random three-dimensional configuration of differentiated cells, which may have a natural adhesion surface on at least a portion of the outer surface of the three-dimensional configuration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.