Repair of articular cartilage defects with chondrocyte derived from allogenic bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in rabbit

To compare the ability of the cartilage precursor cells derived from allogenic and autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) respectively seeded onto “two-phase” allogeneic bone matrix gelatin (BMG) for constructing tissue engineered cartilage in the repair of articular cartilage defects and to observe the repairing efficacy of the two composites for providing the basis for the clinical application of tissue engineered cartilage. After models of articular cartilage defects were made, these rabbits were divided into three groups randomly including 10 in experimental group, 5 in positive control group and 5 in blank group. Rabbits in experimental group were implanted with allogeneic cell-carrier composites, positive control group was implanted with autologous cell-carrier composites and blank group was implanted nothing. Then these rabbits were sacrificed at the 8th and 12th week. Specimens were obtained and underwent general observation, HE staining, immunohistochemistry, and histological score. The defects in experimental group and positive control group were repaired with hyaline-like cartilage tissue while blank group was repaired with fibrous tissues. Histological scores showed that the results of experimental group and positive control group were better than those of blank group at the 8th and 12th week, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); There was no significant difference between experimental group and positive control group (P>0.05). In conclusion, the composite of allogeneic MSCs-derived cartilage precursor cells and autologous BMG can be used as seed cell to construct tissue engineered cartilage in vivo for the repair of articular cartilage defects without immune rejection, and there is no significant difference in the repairing efficacy of allogenic and autologous MSCs-derived precursor cells. And the effect of the two tissue-engineered cartilage transplantation was better than that of implantation with nothing.