Development of articular cartilage repair technique / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Autologous cartilage has a poor self-repair effect due to low chondrocyte density, low metabolism rate and no blood supply. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the recent study about tissue engineering techniques and surgical treatment for cartilage injury. METHODS:A computer-based online retrieval of PubMed database was performed by the first author for articles published between January 1992 and December 2013. The key words are“articular cartilage, injury, tissue engineering, repair”in English. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 61 literatures were included into the final analysis. RESULTS and CONCLUSION:The current clinical treatment of articular cartilage injury includes joint debridement, mosaicplasty, perichondrium transplantation and autologous chondrocyte implantation. However, their long-term result is unsatisfactory. One reason for limited clinical success is that new cartilage can be formed at the site of a defect, and the repaired tissue canot compare with the autologous cartilage in mechanical property. Tissue engineering technique is stil a hot topic in recent years, because it can potential y induce autologous cartilage formation. Through endogenous or ectogeneous seed cells and inducting factor and nutrient factors, tissue engineering technique can be applied to induce the self-repair of articular cartilage, thus regenerating into hyalinc cartilage with the similar even same biological property. How to simplify the treatment protocols and reduce treatment cost is the key to promote cartilage repair.