Title:Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Cartilage Regeneration
Volume: 9
Issue: 6
Author(s): Vuk Savkovic, Hanluo Li, Jong-Keun Seon, Michael Hacker, Sandra Franz and Jan-Christoph Simon
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Articular cartilage, mesenchymal stem cell, osteoarthritis, tissue engineering.
Abstract: Articular cartilage provides life-long weight-bearing and mechanical lubrication with extraordinary biomechanical
performance and simple structure. However, articular cartilage is apparently vulnerable to multifactorial damage
and insufficient to self-repair, isolated in articular capsule without nerves or blood vessels. Osteoarthritis (OA) is known
as a degenerative articular cartilage deficiency progressively affecting large proportion of the world population, and restoration
of hyaline cartilage is clinical challenge to repair articular cartilage lesion and recreate normal functionality over
long period. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are highly proliferative and multipotent somatic cells that are able to differentiate
mesoderm-derived cells including chondrocytes and osteoblasts. Continuous endeavors in basic research and preclinical
trial have achieved promising outcomes in cartilage regeneration using MSCs. This review focuses on rationale
and technologies of MSC-based hyaline cartilage repair involving tissue engineering, 3D biomaterials and growth factors.
By comparing conventional treatment and current research progress, we describe insights of advantage and challenge in
translation and application of MSC-based chondrogenesis for OA treatment.
