LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In addition, the joints could potentially last longer than commonly-used artificial joints, saving elderly patients from having to undergo grueling operations to replace those that have worn away.

Professor Jeremy Mao and his team at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York led the study with colleagues from the University of Missouri and Clemson University in South Carolina.

Scientists used a computer to help create artificial scaffolds that were anatomically the same size and shape as rabbit leg joints. The scaffolds were then infused with a growth factor and implanted into 10 rabbits after their own leg joints had been removed.

Stimulated by the growth factor, the rabbits' own stem cells went to the location of the missing joint and regenerated cartilage and bone in two separate layers.

Just three to four weeks after the surgery, the rabbits had fully regained movement and could bear weight similar to animals that had never undergone the surgery.

The rabbits had grown their own joints using their own stem cells. It was the first time scientists have regenerated a limb joint using either harvested stem cells or an animal's own stem cells.

Professor Mao says that "this is the first time an entire joint surface was regenerated with return of functions including weight bearing and locomotion. Regeneration of cartilage and bone both from the host's own stem cells, rather than taking stem cells out of the body, may ultimately lead to clinical applications."