Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic efficacy and safety of transplanting human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) in the treatment of cartilage injury. First, the articular cartilage defect model in rabbits was constructed. Then, the identified hUCB-MSCs and rabbit bone marrow stem cells (rBM-MSCs) were transplanted into the bone defect, respectively, and the cartilage repair effect was observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry. Besides, the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content and biomechanics of the restoration area were also evaluated. In our study, hUCB-MSCs and rBM-MSCs exhibited typical MSC characteristics, with positive expressions of CD73, CD105, and CD90 and negative for CD45, CD34, CD14, and HLA-DR. After the transplantation of hUCB-MSCs and rBM-MSCs, the overall quality of cartilage tissue was significantly improved, and the recipients did not show significant side effects in general. However, the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) in the de novo tissues of the hUCB-MSCs and rBM-MSCs groups was both increased, indicating that the novel tissues may have some potential osteoarthritic changes. In conclusion, our results suggest the therapeutic effect of hUCB-MSCs transplantation in cartilage regeneration, providing a promising future in the clinical treatment of cartilage injury.
Highlights
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disorder of degenerative joints involving mostly weight-bearing joints such as the knees and hips
The avascular environment in the articular cartilage region provides no potency for fibrotic formation and inflammatory cell migration, making it hard for the injured cartilage tissue to regenerate itself during osteoarthritis development, and the quality of the repaired tissue from which is still far from ideal [2, 3]
The development of regenerative medicine has revealed a promising future of applying mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in cartilage tissue engineering, due to their self-renewal capacity, multilineage differentiation potential, BioMed Research International and immunomodulatory ability [5]
Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disorder of degenerative joints involving mostly weight-bearing joints such as the knees and hips. The avascular environment in the articular cartilage region provides no potency for fibrotic formation and inflammatory cell migration, making it hard for the injured cartilage tissue to regenerate itself during osteoarthritis development, and the quality of the repaired tissue from which is still far from ideal [2, 3]. The development of regenerative medicine has revealed a promising future of applying mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in cartilage tissue engineering, due to their self-renewal capacity, multilineage differentiation potential, BioMed Research International and immunomodulatory ability [5]. Bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) are the most common source of MSCs and were found to promote cartilage regeneration in vivo. Human umbilical cord blood-derived MSCs (hUCB-MSCs) was investigated recently as a new source of MSCs considering they are clinically available, preservable with great proliferative capacity in vitro [8]. Some research data showed that hUCB-MSCs function as immune regulators with nursing effects during inflammatory responses [9]
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