Effects of mechanics in repair of articular cartilage

Abstract

The cartilage of free joints is hyaline cartilage without blood vessels, thus it is difficult to heal by itself after injury. The traditional treatment is mainly surgery, while the cartilage tissue after surgery can not fulfill the structure of native hyaline cartilage. Tissue engineering of cartilage is an option for researchers. In the past decades, besides the main factors of tissue engineering which are cells, scaffolds and growth factors, the attentions are also arising in the mechanical environment affecting the tissue engineered cartilage. The free joints possess complicated mechanical properties, mechanical stimulations of different amplitudes, frequencies and directions influence the extracellular matrix and cells of cartilage, which lead to changes in cartilage structures and functions. During the process of tissue engineered cartilage construction, mechanical stimulation may be the key condition for the chondrocytes function and differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells. The hot point of this field is to find the appropriate mechanical condition for tissue engineered cartilage that can simulate the native hyaline cartilage. Key words: Hyaline cartilage; Biomechanical phenomena; Tissue engineering