Autologous cartilage interpositional material for accelaerating bone-tondon juction healing——A histological study on rabbits

The recent studies on knees showed that histologically an earlier tendon and joint cartilage structure healing was faster than the tendon and bone healing. The authors conducted a study to explore the biological potential of using autologous cartilage as interpositional materials to reestablish a fibrocartilage BT junction zone and to accelerate the BT junction repair. Autologous fibrocartilage(autologous meniscus) and hyaline cartilage (articular cartilage) were used as interpositional materials for BT repair. Earlier and well incorporate BT interface was observed after using both fibrocartilage and hyaline cartilage to repair the BT junction compared with a direct BT reattachment at the 8th postoperative week,without degenerative changes. The interposiitonal cartilage resembled the matrix of the normal fibrocartilage zone of the BT junction by evealuating its matrix proteoglycans using Safrainin O staining.