First-in-class pharmacotherapies for arthrofibrosis

Joint stiffening (arthrofibrosis) is a debilitating complication with limited treatment options that is observed in a substantial subset of patients (approximately 5%) following total knee replacement (arthroplasty), a very high volume procedure (approximately 1 million performed per year). Despite significant advancements in TKA procedures and orthopedic implant devices, there are no preventative treatments to avoid joint stiffness and only surgical options to treat existing stiffness. This proposal will apply an advanced surgical small animal model to assess whether a relatively benign drug with existing safety profiles can be repurposed and translated to modify local stem cell behavior in the human joint to switch stiff fibrotic tissue into pliable fat tissue.