Application of growth factor in repair of articular cartilage injury

Abstract

The joint is an important athletic organ, and has special structure, i.e. no blood supply in the mature articular cartilage. Hence, once articular cartilage is damaged and is difficult to self-repair. Nowadays, there are several clinical methods for articular cartilage injury, such as micro-fracture, transplant of articular cartilage, replacement of articular cartilage and cartilage tissue engineering. But the repairing effects of these methods are unsatisfactory. Growth factors are biologically active substances that are synthesized by cells in vivo and can accelerate cell growth, promote cell proliferation and induce cell migration etc. There are many growth factors participate in the development of cartilage, such as fibroblast growth factor(FGF), bone morphogenetic protein(BMP), insulin-like growth factor(IGF) and so on. Some research showed that the addition of exogenous growth factor in articular cartilage repair can effectively promote the repair of articular cartilage injury. In this paper, the main growth factors used for articular cartilage injury repair were reviewed, and the functions of these factors in the development and the repair of articular cartilage were discussed. The problems of growth factors in the application of articular cartilage repair were analyzed. Key words: Articular cartilage injury; Repair; Chondrocyte; Growth factor