In a small trial of 10 patients with damaged knee joints, doctors harvested cells from their noses to engineer new cartilage tissue and transplant it into their damaged knees. In a paper published in The Lancet, the Swiss team describes how 2 years after transplant, most of the patients had developed new tissue similar to normal cartilage and reported improvements in knee function, pain, and quality of life. 
Every year, approximately 2 million people in Europe and the United States are diagnosed with damage to knee joints arising from injuries or accidents.However, the authors point out that while the results of their phase I study are promising and show the approach is feasible and safe, there is still a long way to go before such a procedure can be approved for routine use with patients.
