Repair of prefabricated defects of articular cartilage by transplanting cultured masses of autologouschondrocytes

Objective To explore the feasibility of repairing defects of articular cartilage with cul-tured mass of autologous chondrocytes. Methods Forty-eight knees of 24 adult New Zealand rabbits were divided into blank control group, periosteum transplantation group and experiment group. A quadrate full-thickness cartilage defect was fabricated in each patellar grove of distal femur. In experiment group, cartilage was obtained from one of the shoulders in the same operation, and the chondrocytes were isolated from the cartilage tissue with type Ⅱ collagenase digestion and cultured and amplified in flasks in vitro. In a second surgery, masses of the autologous chondrocytes were implanted into the defects after debridement of the pre-fabricated defects. Finally the defect was sealed with a piece of periosteum obtained from the upper anterior tibia. The defects in blank control group were left untreated and in periosteum transplanted group were sealed only with periosteum. The animals were sacrificed in the 3rd and 6th months after the second operation re-spectively. Efficiency of repair was evaluated according to Wakaniti scoring and statistically analyzed with One-Way ANOVA and Scheffe test. Results In experiment group, 9 of the 11 defects were well repaired with mature hyaline cartilage tissue. However, 2 of the 11 defects were not repaired due to languishment of the cells implanted. In periosteum transplantation group, most of the defects were repaired only with thin fibro-cartilage or fibrous tissue. In blank control group, most of the defects were just filled with little fibrous tissue. Wakaniti scoring showed 3.82 points for experiment group, 6.71 for periosteum transplantation group and 9.23 for blank control group, with a significant difference (F=5.96, P=0.00). Conclusions It is a promising way of repairing the articular cartilage to conduct mass transplantation of cultured auto]ogous articular chondrocytes. The quality of repaired tissue is correlated with the activity of cells transplanted. Key words: Chondrocyte; Articular ; Rabbits