Cartilage regeneration by bone marrow cells-seeded scaffolds

• Published in: Journal of biomedical materials research. Part A 2010-12, Vol.95A (3), p.735-740
• Main Authors: Wegener, Bernd, Schrimpf, Florian M., Bergschmidt, Philipp, Pietschmann, Mathias F., Utzschneider, Sandra, Milz, Stefan, Jansson, Volkmar, Müller, Peter E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biocompatible Materials - chemistry; Biocompatible Materials - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Blood. Blood coagulation. Reticuloendothelial system; Bone marrow; bone marrow cells; Bone Marrow Cells - cytology; Bone Marrow Cells - physiology; Bone Regeneration - physiology; Cartilage; cartilage tissue engineering; Cartilage, Articular - cytology; Cartilage, Articular - pathology; Cartilage, Articular - physiology; chondrocyte; Defects; Fibrin; fibrin glue; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glues; Health. Pharmaceutical industry; Humans; Implants, Experimental; Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects; Lactic Acid - chemistry; Lactic Acid - metabolism; Materials Testing; Medical sciences; Microfracture; Miscellaneous; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Polyglycolic Acid - chemistry; Polyglycolic Acid - metabolism; Reproduction; scaffold; Sheep; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Surgical implants; Technology. Biomaterials. Equipments; Tissue Engineering - instrumentation; Tissue Engineering - methods; Tissue Scaffolds
• ISSN: 1549-3296; 1552-4965; 1552-4965
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.32885

Different approaches exist for the treatment of small articular cartilage defects. Several studies show comparable results for autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and microfracture. Unfortunately, the fibrocartilage resulting from microfracture has neither the structure nor the mechanical properties of hyaline cartilage, even though the adult mesenchymal stem cells, which immigrate into the defect, are supposed to differentiate into chondrocytes. This study was performed to examine the capacity of a resorbable implant made from polylactide‐co‐glycolide acid (PGLA)‐fleece combined with autologous bone marrow cells fixed with a fibrin/thrombin‐clot in the weight‐bearing area of the femoral condyle of mature sheep. For this study, six defects were treated with either the PGLA‐implant alone or with a combination of the implant with added fibrin glue or were left untreated to serve as controls. The animals were sacrificed after 12 weeks; the operated knees were removed and examined by measuring the covering of the defect with cartilaginous tissue and according to the score of O'Driscoll. Additional criteria such as immunolabeling for collagen II and aggrecan were included. Results showed that no improvement of the tissue quantity or quality could be achieved by increasing the cell load of the implant with cells fixed by fibrin glue. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2010.