The Effect of Cartilage Fragments on Femoral Tunnel Widening After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

Cartilage fragments combined with BMSCs-Derived exosomes can promote tendon-bone healing after ACL reconstruction

“…Besides, mature chondrocytes reserve stemness, which can generate chondrogenic progenitor cells for cartilage repair [ 10 ]. Our previous clinical study failed to produce expected outcomes on the possibility of cartilage fragments to prevent bone tunnel widening [ 12 ].…”

“…Moreover, cartilage fragments contain abundant stem cells, particularly cartilage-derived stem or progenitor cells (CSPCs), which have the potential to promote tendon-bone healing [ 10 , 11 ]. A study demonstrated that cartilage fragments could prevent femoral tunnel widening after ACLR [ 12 ] but could not regenerate sufficient cartilage tissues at the site of ACL insertion to achieve enthesis healing. Additional therapeutics are needed to promote tendon-bone healing in ACLR.…”

Editorial Commentary: The Quest to Prevent Knee Anterior Cruciate Ligament Bone Tunnel Widening Continues

“…In fact, this is the basis for the De Novo product, which uses particulated juvenile articular cartilage for treatment of cartilage lesions. 4 In the current study, Zhang et al 3 used computed tomography scanning to measure new bone formation in the femoral tunnel, comparing patients who received cartilage fragments with controls who did not. They present histologic data on biopsies of the tissue at the graft-bone interface in a small number of patients.…”