Experimental study on the repair of articular cartilage defects and prevention on osteoarthritis by intra-articular injection of IGF-1、TGF-β1

Objective To investigate the effect of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) on the repair of articular cartilage defects and the prevention of osteoarthritis by intrarticular injection.Methods A total of 35 healthy matured New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into 4 groups.The cartilage damage model was established on the knee joint through drilling with trochlea zone in group B,C and D.On the right knee,0.1 ml IGF-1 and TGF-β1 were injected into the knee cavity once a week,while on the left knee the defect was left as a control and 0.1 ml normal saline was injected at the same time.Nothing was done with the group A.The animals were killed after 4 and 8 weeks,respectively,and then the macroscopic examination,ematoxylin and eosinstain,safranin O staining,growth factors and immuno-histochemical examination were performed.Results The regeneration tissue of the experiment side was better than the control side in each group.Moreover,there isn’t cataplasia in the normal cartilage around the defect on the experiment side,but some degree cataplasia was found on the control side after 4 and 8 week.There wasn’t statistical difference on the expression of growth factor between the experiment side and the normal group (P0.05).Conclusion IGF-1 and TGF-β1 can repair articular cartilage defects and prevent osteoarthritis by intrarticular injection.The effect of combined treatment was obviously superior to that of single treatment.