Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticleRepair of Full-Thickness Cartilage Defects With Cells of Different Origin in a Rabbit Model
Section snippets
Methods
Experimental rabbits were kept in research facilities for laboratory animal science at our university. The research protocol of this experiment was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of the university.
Macroscopic Findings
In the chondrocyte and MSC groups, no difference was observed in the appearance of defects. At 6 weeks after implantation, grafted areas were covered with smooth, white semitransparent tissue; margins of the grafted areas were recognizable. At 12 weeks after implantation, repaired tissues became opaque and were well incorporated. It was difficult to discern the boundary between the host and the repaired tissue. No apparent synovitis was observed.
In the hUCB stem cell group, at 6 weeks after
Discussion
Progress in cell biology and biomaterial technology has led to the possibility of therapeutic applications of tissue engineering for the repair of cartilage defects. Tissue engineering techniques for cartilage repair have been given much attention in the orthopaedic field. A lot of basic research for articular cartilage repair through the tissue engineering technique has been conducted.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 The cell source has been a big challenge for this tissue engineering approach.
Conclusions
Full-thickness defects treated with chondrocyte or MSC transplantation were repaired with hyaline-like cartilage tissue, and repaired tissue was significantly better than that attained with fibroblast or hUCB stem cell treatment; they were also better than those observed in the control group. Repaired tissue treated with MSCs appeared to yield cell arrangement, subchondral bone remodeling, and integration with surrounding cartilage that were superior to those seen in repaired tissue generated
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2018, Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical EngineersCitation Excerpt :Third, the study lacks an MSC-only group. Previous studies have shown that MSC implantation appears to repair both the articular cartilage and the subchondral bone [24–26]; thus, we omitted this group to reduce the usage of animals numbers. Fourth, regarding the limited cell number, we delivered 5 × 106 MSCs into each degenerated knee.
Supported by the National Sports Administration of China and the Beijing Science and Technology Committee. The authors report no conflict of interest.