A preclinical evaluation of an autologous living hyaline-like cartilaginous graft for articular cartilage repair: a pilot study

Abstract

In this pilot study, an autologous synthetic scaffold-free construct with hyaline quality, termed living hyaline cartilaginous graft (LhCG), was applied for treating cartilage lesions. Implantation of autologous LhCG was done at load-bearing regions of the knees in skeletally mature mini-pigs for 6 months. Over the course of this study, significant radiographical improvement in LhCG treated sites was observed via magnetic resonance imaging. Furthermore, macroscopic repair was effected by LhCG at endpoint. Microscopic inspection revealed that LhCG engraftment restored cartilage thickness, promoted integration with surrounding native cartilage, produced abundant cartilagespecific matrix molecules, and re-established an intact superficial tangential zone. Importantly, the repair efficacy of LhCG was quantitatively shown to be comparable to native, unaffected cartilage in terms of biochemical composition and biomechanical properties. There were no complications related to the donor site of cartilage biopsy. Collectively, these results imply that LhCG engraftment may be a viable approach for articular cartilage repair.Articular cartilage is a highly organized connective tissue with poor reparative capacity due to its low metabolic activity and avascular nature

Main and Minor Types of Collagens in the Articular Cartilage: The Role of Collagens in Repair Tissue Evaluation in Chondral Defects

“…As mentioned above, the healthy articular cartilage is characterized by presenting a hyaline structure. Several authors have reported that using different current therapies for chondral lesions they have been able to obtain a hyaline-like repair tissue [139][140][141][142]. Thus, in this context, the basic question that is often asked regarding the cartilage regeneration after damage is about the role of all collagen types in the repair assessment, and the threshold to consider a regenerated cartilage as hyaline-like cartilage including ECM evaluation.…”

Laser-induced micropore formation and modification of cartilage structure in osteoarthritis healing

“…7 Methods for the full repair of hyaline cartilage (HC) and recovery of its structure and mechanical properties still have not been discovered. 6,8,9 The methods developed here are based on laser-induced modification of cartilage structure and the recognition of the key role the pores play in the normal functioning of the healthy avascular tissue. The term "pores" for the inhomogeneous tissues is considered as the areas of lesser density and stiffness providing pathways for the liquid mass transfer across the tissue, ensuring its proper nutrition.…”

Development and study of biological coating materials for enhancement of host-graft interfacing affinity and biocompatibility

“…Furthermore, they studied 3D stepwise chondrogenesis-mimicking ECM graft by controlling the stages of chondrogenic differentiation [12]. Our group has been studying porcine source ECM cartilage tissue engineering implants for years and developed Living Hyaline Cartilage Graft (LhCG) for cartilage tissue regeneration [13][14][15][16].…”

“…LhCG and dLhCG were engineered based on an established protocol in our previous publications as model xenografts [13][14][15][16]. dLhCG is a promising candidate for cartilage tissue engineering [17][18][19].…”

“…Adhesion of albumin onto grafts were achieved by introducing dopamine, a mussel-inspired adhesive[69], via chemical reaction which avoids the introduction of free dopamine. Moreover, similar to chapter 2, living hyaline cartilage graft (LhCG)[13][14][15][16], which is composed of porcine chondrocytes derived extracellular matrix (ECM) with porcine chondrocytes, and decellularized LhCG (dLhCG)[17][18][19], which is mainly constituted by porcine chondrocytes derived ECM were applied as xenograft models in this study. The process was briefly illustrated inFigure 3.1.…”