RESUMO
To investigate the healing effects of vitreous body in repair of cartilage defects of the knee joint in dog as an animal model. Ten mature cross-bred female dogs weighing 20-35 kg entered our study. The right and left knees underwent a medial parapatellar incision arthrotomy. A cartilage defect was created by a six mm drill to subchondral bone in the right knee and the two borders of the fascia were fixed to the space of the joint defect. The vitreous was provided through a clear corneal incision to completely fill the joint defect. In the left knee, the cartilage defect was left untreated. The dogs were sacrificed after 3 months post-operation and the samples were studied for any sign of repair. The defects of the right knee showed more signs of repair compared to the left knee after 12 weeks. Fibrous and hyaline tissues, new bone and blood vessels formation were significantly more visible in the right knee. Modified histological scoring scale in the right and left knees were 5.8 and 11, respectively. The results imply the promising effect of vitreous body implantation in the healing of a cartilage defect in the knee joint