Abstract
Cartilage tissue engineering is arising as a technique for the repair of cartilage lesions in clinical applications. However, fibrocartilage formation weakened the mechanical functions of the articular, which compromises the clinical outcomes. Due to the low proliferation ability, dedifferentiation property and low production of cartilage-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) of the chondrocytes, the cartilage synthesis in vitro has been one of the major limitations for obtaining high-quality engineered cartilage constructs. This review discusses cells, biomaterial scaffolds and stimulating factors that can facilitate the cartilage-specific ECM production and accumulation in the in vitro culture system. Special emphasis has been put on the factors that affect the production of ECM macromolecules such as collagen type II and proteoglycans in the review, aiming at providing new strategies to improve the quality of tissue-engineered cartilage.
Highlights
Articular cartilage lesions, once caused by trauma or pathology, are hard to heal by itself due to the poor capability of chondrocytes to regenerate
The treatment for articular cartilage lesions is versatile and challenging, which develops from initial microfracture, mosaicplsty to the first and second generation of autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and gradually widely used matrix-assisted autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI) [1,2]
An obvious obstacle currently is the inadequate production and accumulation of some chondrocyte-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) macromolecules, especially collagen type II in cultured constructs comparing with native cartilage tissue, even though there has been a great progression in regeneration of the cartilage lesions using engineered constructs [5]
Summary
Once caused by trauma or pathology, are hard to heal by itself due to the poor capability of chondrocytes to regenerate. Collagen type II, proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan (GAG), as the primary compositions in the ECM, have always been used as the criteria for the identification and evaluation of the chondrogenic capacity of cells and constructs obtained for cartilage tissue engineering. An obvious obstacle currently is the inadequate production and accumulation of some chondrocyte-specific ECM macromolecules, especially collagen type II in cultured constructs comparing with native cartilage tissue, even though there has been a great progression in regeneration of the cartilage lesions using engineered constructs [5].
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