Rationale and pre-clinical evidences for the use of autologous cartilage micrografts in cartilage repair

Marco Viganò,Marco Scala,Alessandra Colombini,Irene Tessaro,Andrea Toto,Alberto Magi,Letizia Trovato,Giuseppe Peretti,Laura De Girolamo

doi:10.1186/s13018-018-0983-y

Marco Viganò, Marco Scala + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-018-0983-y

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundThe management of cartilage lesions is an open issue in clinical practice, and regenerative medicine represents a promising approach, including the use of autologous micrografts whose efficacy was already tested in different clinical settings. The aim of this study was to characterize in vitro the effect of autologous cartilage micrografts on chondrocyte viability and differentiation and perform an evaluation of their application in racehorses affected by joint diseases.Materials and methodsMatched human chondrocytes and micrografts were obtained from articular cartilage using Rigenera® procedure. Chondrocytes were cultured in the presence or absence of micrografts and chondrogenic medium to assess cell viability and cell differentiation. For the pre-clinical evaluation, three racehorses affected by joint diseases were treated with a suspension of autologous micrografts and PRP in arthroscopy interventions. Clinical and radiographic follow-ups were performed up to 4 months after the procedure.ResultsAutologous micrografts support the formation of chondrogenic micromasses thanks to their content of matrix and growth factors, such as transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). On the other hand, no significant differences were observed on the gene expression of type II collagen, aggrecan, and SOX9. Preliminary data in the treatment of racehorses are suggestive of a potential in vivo use of micrografts to treat cartilage lesions.ConclusionThe results reported in this study showed the role of articular micrografts in the promoting chondrocyte differentiation suggesting their potential use in the clinical practice to treat articular lesions.

Highlights

The management of cartilage lesions is an open issue in clinical practice, and regenerative medicine represents a promising approach, including the use of autologous micrografts whose efficacy was already tested in different clinical settings
Autologous micrografts support the formation of chondrogenic micromasses thanks to their content of matrix and growth factors, such as transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)
The results reported in this study showed the role of articular micrografts in the promoting chondrocyte differentiation suggesting their potential use in the clinical practice to treat articular lesions

Summary

Introduction

The management of cartilage lesions is an open issue in clinical practice, and regenerative medicine represents a promising approach, including the use of autologous micrografts whose efficacy was already tested in different clinical settings. Regenerative medicine approaches, based on cell therapy or tissue engineering, gather increasing interest, representing possible therapeutic alternatives. Recent studies demonstrated that progenitors cells from cartilage are the preferred cell type for this kind of approach, since other cell types, such as bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, are not able to generate hyaline cartilage [6]. The Rigenera® procedure is an innovative clinical protocol to obtain autologous articular micrografts, containing both live cells and fragments of hyaline cartilage matrix, ready to use alone or in combination with the most common scaffolds. Some recent papers showed the effectiveness of micrografts in the cartilage and cardiac regeneration [16, 17]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion