The Application of Polysaccharide Biocomposites to Repair Cartilage Defects

Feng Zhao,Dehu Tian,Guoping Zhang,Yueling Yan,Hongyang Gao,Wei He,Hongjuan Zhang

doi:10.1155/2014/654597

Abstract

Owing to own nature of articular cartilage, it almost has no self-healing ability once damaged. Despite lots of restore technologies having been raised in the past decades, no repair technology has smoothly substituted for damaged cartilage using regenerated cartilage tissue. The approach of tissue engineering opens a door to successfully repairing articular cartilage defects. For instance, grafting of isolated chondrocytes has huge clinical potential for restoration of cartilage tissue and cure of chondral injury. In this paper, SD rats are used as subjects in the experiments, and they are classified into three groups: natural repair (group A), hyaluronic acid repair (group B), and polysaccharide biocomposites repair (hyaluronic acid hydrogel containing chondrocytes, group C). Through the observation of effects of repairing articular cartilage defects, we concluded that cartilage repair effect of polysaccharide biocomposites was the best at every time point, and then the second best was hyaluronic acid repair; both of them were better than natural repair. Polysaccharide biocomposites have good biodegradability and high histocompatibility and promote chondrocytes survival, reproduction, and spliting. Moreover, polysaccharide biocomposites could not only provide the porous network structure but also carry chondrocytes. Consequently hyaluronic acid-based polysaccharide biocomposites are considered to be an ideal biological material for repairing articular cartilage.

Highlights

Articular cartilage plays a vital role in the function of joint action
With the rapid development of tissue engineering, techniques to restore articular cartilage defects have made tremendous progress [2], but these are still unsatisfactory for the effect of repairing articular cartilage defect
In the observation of electron microscope observation, specimen staining revealed that the bottom of restoration area in groups: natural repair (group A) appeared to be a small amount of red granulation tissue whose surface was covered by pale, relatively smooth, and transparent membrane after 10 days of operation (Figure 1(a))

Summary

Introduction

Articular cartilage plays a vital role in the function of joint action. Complete articular cartilage is the foundation of the normal function of the joint to exercise. Articular cartilage is a single tissue without supply of blood and lymphatic. Articular cartilage defects are a significant problem in orthopedic surgery. Owing to lack of ability of self-repairing, cartilage injuries are kept for years and can result in further degeneration [1]. Lots of researches have been conducted on articular cartilage, we had a better understanding of the biological repair process, and it has recently been shown that articular cartilage has a spontaneous repair reaction in the case of full-thickness cartilage defects [3]. Few useful elaborations with respect to repair processes in terms of partial-thickness lesions restricted the cartilage itself [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion