Comparative Experimental Research on Repairing of Full-thick Articular Cartilage Defects with Cartilage Transplant and Subchondral Bone Drilling

Objective: To compare and evaluate the differences of potentialities biological characteristics and between cartilage transplant and subchondral bone drilling in repairing defects of articular cartilage.Method:By using the Repeated Measure Design of Latin Square,36 adult male rabbits were divided into groups randomly based on three factors,and three levels.A free allogenic cartilage was grafted to a size-matched,full-thickness articular cartilage defect.Subchondral bone drilling were also used to repair the cartilaginous defects.The reconstructed cartilage were observed in gross and by optical and electron microscopes and morphological analysis at 4,8,12 weeks respectively.Results:All of these methods could repair the lesions completely at 12 weeks,while the control groups were filled with fibrous tissue.The height of the repair tissue and the light density data indicated that the cartilage transplant group was better than other groups.No evidence of immune rejection was observed.The lesion size was not a significantly important factor of the repairing.Conclusion:1.Allogenic cartilage transplant and subchondral bone drilling are feasible for repairing of the articular cartilage defects.2.Cartilage transplant is better than other methods without any acute immune rejection short termly.3.The results are advancing with time and the size of lesion is not the utmost important factor of cartilage healing.