Introduction: Some reports showed that low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) could stimulate mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) differentiation into osteo/chondrocyte in vitro. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether LIPUS treatment combined with cell therapy could affect cartilage regeneration in rats which have poor intrinsic repair capacity.Materials and Methods: Eight weeks old male Wistar rats were used in this study. An osteochondral defect, 1mm in diameter, was created on both sides of femora trochlea. MSCs were injected into right knee joint after 4 weeks from defect operation and rats were divided into 2 interventions: without or with LIPUS treatment. Two days after intra-articular injection, the rats with LIPUS were subjected to LIPUS treatment according to parameters borrowed from those for bone fracture treatment, 20 min/d, 5 d/wk for 4 weeks, to both knee joints. The rats were euthanized and their knee joints were isolated after 4 weeks post intra-articular injection. The isolated knee joints were therefore divided into 4 groups: Control group, LIPUS group, MSC group and LIPUS+MSC (MSCL) group. The osteochondral defect area was histologically evaluated with Wakitani cartilage repair score and immunohistochemically stained for type II collagen.Results: Four weeks after intra-articular injection, the defect area was filled with repair tissue which wasn't hyaline cartilage in Control group. In LIPUS, MSC and MSCL groups, the Wakitani cartilage repair score was increased compared with Control group, although there were not clear differences among these 3 groups in the score. In LIPUS and MSCL groups, we observed type II collagen expression in wide range of repair tissue compared with MSC group.Discussion: Our results indicated that LIPUS treatment or MSC injection could stimulate cartilage regeneration, while there might be little interactive effect between these 2 treatments in vitro.
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