Biological xenogeneic ligament graft combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to repair anterior cruciate ligament injury / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Xenogeneic ligament is readily available, which has ligament scaffold structure and is conducive to tissue ingrowth and creeping substitution. After processing, the xenogeneic ligament, with the presence of good growth scaffold function, can be completely eliminated antigenicity that can cause immune rejection. OBJECTIVE:To study the feasibility of biological xenogeneic ligament graft instead of alogeneic ligament graft for reconstruction of goat anterior cruciate ligament. METHODS: Twenty-four healthy adult goats were randomly divided into A, B, C groups, and then, the left knee joints of goats were removed to establish animal models of anterior cruciate ligament injury in the three groups. After the establishment of the tibia and femoral bone tunnel, groups A, B, C were respectively transplanted with biological xenogeneic ligament graft combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels, biological xenogeneic ligament graft alone, and alogenic ligament. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After implantation, no rejection but good biocompatibility was found in the group A, in which, the transplanted ligament as a functional scaffold for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, and new tissues in-grew and replaced the scaffold under intraarticular environment to form the new ligament with good bone tendon healing. However, there were no differences in histology, immune response, biomechanical findings between groups A and C. Additionaly, in the group A, the host tissues were found to grow into the scaffold and establish a micro-circulation. These findings indicate that xenogeneic ligament combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels can accelerate the establishment of micro-circulation and promote the growth of ligaments, especialy improve the ligament revascularization significantly, but has no influence on the biological characteristics of the ligament.