Experiment study of rabbit joint articular cartilage defects repaired by thermosensitive CS/PVA composite hydrogel engineered hTGF-β1 transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate the experiment effects of rabbit joint articular cartilage defects repaired by thermosensitive CS/PVA composite hydrogel engineered hTGF-β1 transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Methods Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were isolated and cultured in vitro. The positive rate of transfection was defected by cell immunohistochemistry methods after Ad-hTGF-β1 transfected for 1 week. Twenty-four adult New Zealand white rabbits with full articular cartilage defects were randomly divided into 4 groups, each group had 6 animals, both hind limbs were used in the experiment. Group A: hydrogel combined with transfected cells; Group B: hydrogel combined with untransfected cells; Group C: hydrogel group; Group D: blank control group. Specimens and histological observation were used to evaluate the repair effect after 16 weeks according to Pineda's score. Results The positive rate of hTGF-β1 expression in BMSCs was about 85.4% after transfection. After 16 weeks the defects of group A were repaired by cartilage-like tissue, the cell arrangement and densities of regenerated cartilage were similar to normal cartilage, type Ⅱ collagen immunohistochemistry were positive. There was a significant difference in Pineda's score compaired with other groups (P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion Rabbit articiular cartilage defects could be repaired by CS/PVA hydrogel engineered hTGF-β1-transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Key words: Hydrogel; Transforming growth factor; Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; Joint articular cartilage defect