The cartilage-building cell used in joint-repair protocols.
The specialised cell that maintains cartilage—distinct from stem cells or growth factors. Clinics sometimes harvest your own chondrocytes (autologous chondrocyte implantation, ACI) to repair joint cartilage, a decades-old technique with moderate evidence for small lesions. The appeal is biological plausibility: you're replacing like-with-like. The limitation: mature chondrocytes in culture often dedifferentiate and lose cartilage-producing ability, and they don't regenerate surrounding tissue. Ask clinics whether they're using mature chondrocytes (older technology) or chondrocyte precursors; also ask about their graft success rate for lesion size matching yours.
StemCellAtlas is your guide to stem-cell therapy: what the evidence shows, which conditions are treated, and the real all-in cost by country — typically €3,000–8,000 with our partner Stem Plus (Sofia), Europe's lowest-cost EU destination, versus $15,000–35,000 in the US.
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