ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) as common seed cells have been widely used in tissue-engineered cartilage repair.OBJECTIVE: To use human amniotic membrane as a cell scaffold to carry rabbit BMSCs in order to repair articular cartilage defects in the femoral intercondylar fossa of rabbits.METHODS: Rabbit BMSCs were inoculated onto the human acellular amniotic membrane (HAAM) and co-cultured for 2 weeks. Articular defect models were made in the femoral intercondylar fossa of rabbits. The defects of the right knees served as blank control. BMSCs/HAAM composite was transplanted into the defect of the left knee joint as composite group, and HAAM was implanted into the defect of the left knee joint as HAAM group. These rabbits were killed at 8 and 12 weeks after implantation and the newly cartilage samples were evaluated grossly and histologically and then graded.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Gross observation showed the defects were filled with cartilaginous tissues in the composite group, and there were no cartilage tissues in the HAAM group, while only fibrous tissues were seen in the blank control group. Histologically, the defect region was full of chondrocytes in the composite group,immunohistochemistry staining indicated that collagen II was rich in the tissue, and furthermore, the cartilage matrix was stained deeply by toluidine blue. In the the HAAM group, there were few chondrocytes, toluidine blue staining was weakly positive, and immunohistochemistry staining was negative, indicating there was no cartilage matrix. In the blank control group, the defects were filled of fibroblasts and toluidine blue staining was weakly positive. To conclude, the BMSCs/HAAM is a good scaffold for BMSCs chondrogenic differentiation to effectively repair articular cartilage defects.