Experimental study on articular cartilage defects repaired with homograft of mesenchymal stem cells seeded onto deminerized bone matrix

    LI Qiang£¬ SUN Zhenª²Yi£¬ WANG Shuanª²Ke, LIU Wengª²Zhong, ZHANG Qin

    Institute of Orthopaedics, Second Hospital, Lanzhou Medical College, Lanzhou 730030, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the curative effects of homograft of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) seeded onto demineralized bone matrix (DBM) on articular cartilage defects. METHODS: Mesenchymal stem cells derived from Qingzilan rabbits aged 4 to 6 months and weighed 2.5-3.5 kg were cultured in vitro and seeded onto demineralized bone matrix. The MSC/DBM complex was cultured and transplanted into fullª²thickness defects on intercondylar fossa. Thirtyª²six healthy Qingzilan rabbits were divided into three groups randomly with 12 in each group. The cartilage defects in the intercondylar fossa were filled with autoª²bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and demineralized bone matrix complex (MSCs/DBM) in group A (management A), with only demineralized bone matrix in group B (management B) and with nothing in group C (management C). Four rabbits were killed at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after the operation in each group, and the reparative tissue samples were evaluated grossly, histologically and immunohistochemically and graded according to gross and histological scale. SPSS 10.0 software was applied to proceed the statistical analysis to find out if the differences between each group had statistical significance. RESULTS: The defects in MSCs/DBM transplantation group were repaired by hylineª²like tissue and the other groups were repaired by fibrous tissues. Statistical analysis of gross and histological grading scales showed that MSCs/DBM management was significantly better than DBM management and control management(P<0.05), and DBM management was better than control management (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells seeded onto demineralized bone matrix is a promising way for the treatment of cartilage defects. ......