Recombinant human growth hormone in repairing articular cartilage defects / 第三军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the mechanism of recombinant human growth hormone(rhGH) in articular cartilage defect repair in vivo.Methods The cylindrical,full-thick articular cartilage defects,(3.5 mm) in diameter,were made in the knee joints of 25 rabbits.rhGH of 0.1 U/kg was injected into the right knee joints 3 times a week for 4 weeks and equal volume of physiological saline to the left knee joints as control.The animals were killed respectively in 4,6,8,12,24 weeks,and the macroscopic,histologic and ultrastractural examinations were performed.Results The repairing process in experimental group was faster and better than that in the control.In the experimental groups,the defect was filled on week 4,the regenerated cartilage mainly in the shallow region and fibrous tissue in the deep region;on week 24,the regenerated tissue was morphologically close to the neighbour normal cartilage,hard to differentiate by macroscopy;Light microscopy showed the defect recovered to normal cartilage structure and the electron microscopy showed a large quantity of mature cartilage cells.In the control groups,the defect was of shallow introcession,mainly of fibrous tissue.The histological examination showed the significant difference between experimental and control groups(P