Gel-type autologous chondrocyte (Chondron™) implantation for treatment of articular cartilage defects of the knee

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gel-type autologous chondrocyte (Chondron™) implantations have been used for several years without using periosteum or membrane. This study involves evaluations of the clinical results of Chondron™ at many clinical centers at various time points during the postoperative patient follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from 98 patients with articular cartilage injury of the knee joint and who underwent Chondron™ implantation at ten Korean hospitals between January 2005 and November 2008, were included and were divided into two groups based on the patient follow-up period, i.e. 13~24-month follow-up and greater than 25-month follow-up. The telephone Knee Society Score obtained during telephone interviews with patients, was used as the evaluation tool.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>On the tKSS-A (telephone Knee Society Score-A), the score improved from 43.52 ± 20.20 to 89.71 ± 13.69 (P < 0.05), and on the tKSS-B (telephone Knee Society Score-B), the score improved from 50.66 ± 20.05 to 89.38 ± 15.76 (P < 0.05). The total improvement was from 94.18 ± 31.43 to 179.10 ± 24.69 (P < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Gel-type autologous chondrocyte implantation for chondral knee defects appears to be a safe and effective method for both decreasing pain and improving knee function.</p

Building an Anisotropic Meniscus with Zonal Variations

Toward addressing the difficult problems of knee meniscus regeneration, a self-assembling process has been used to re-create the native morphology and matrix properties. A significant problem in such attempts is the recapitulation of the distinct zones of the meniscus, the inner, more cartilaginous and the outer, more fibrocartilaginous zones. In this study, an anisotropic and zonally variant meniscus was produced by self-assembly of the inner meniscus (100% chondrocytes) followed by cell seeding the outer meniscus (coculture of chondrocytes and meniscus cells). After 4 weeks in culture, the engineered, inner meniscus exhibited a 42% increase in both instantaneous and relaxation moduli and a 62% increase in GAG/DW, as compared to the outer meniscus. In contrast, the circumferential tensile modulus and collagen/DW of the outer zone was 101% and 129% higher, respectively, than the values measured for the inner zone. Furthermore, there was no difference in the radial tensile modulus between the control and zonal engineered menisci, suggesting that the inner and outer zones of the engineered zonal menisci successfully integrated. These data demonstrate that not only can biomechanical and biochemical properties be engineered to differ by the zone, but they can also recapitulate the anisotropic behavior of the knee meniscus