Treatments of articular cartilage defects: Autologous chondrocyte implantation, matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation, in vivo scaffolds and related tissue engineering technologies / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Self-repairing capability of articular cartilage tissue is poor, due to lack of the distribution of vessels and lymph.OBJECTIVE: To concisely describe the research progress of autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), including matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI), in vivo scaffolds, and related tissue engineering technologies, and to prospect the future developments.METHODS: A search across the databases of ISI Web of Knowledge and PubMed (1979 to February 2009) was performed, with key words of "articular cartilage, transplantation, stern cells, tissue engineering". As well, a search in the database of CNKI (1979 to Febraruy 2009) was performed with the key words of "articular cartilage, repair, tissue engineering". Contents referring to ACI,MACI, in vivo scaffolds and related tissue engineering technologies were included, while contents regarding to the clinical imaging of articular cartilage defects, intracellular signaling pathways in chondrocytes, or gene therapy for articular cartilage defects were excluded.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: 824 articles were obtained from the preliminary search across the databases. Based on the nominated evaluation criterions to the outcome, analysis focusing on ACI, MACI, in vivo scaffolds and related tissue engineering technologies was performed. As the most successful treatment for articular cartilage defects in the past decade, ACI has undergone a significant development. Recent improvements of ACI include MACI, in vivo scaffolds and related tissue engineering technologies, which exhibit relatively more success in engineering and clinical practice. Nonetheless, limitations still exist and therefore, further researches are required. As a promising alternative of ACI, MACI is more and more widely used in clinical practice for treating articular cartilage defects these years. The long-term curative effect of MACI, however, requires further clinical data to confirm. In addition, other improvements of ACI, in terms of material science, cytology and molecular biology, have been also provided by the developments of in vivo scaffolds and related tissue engineering technologies.