A comparison of distinct bone marrow-derived cells on cartilage tissue engineering

Repair of articular cartilage damage has been a great clinical issue due to the difficulties of heal and regeneration once cartilage is damaged. Tissue engineering has emerged as a promising trend for cartilage repair. However, there are some limitations to cartilage tissue engineering, and one of them is the cell source. Using various cell sources for cartilage repair or tissue engineering would lead to distinct outcomes. Therefore, the effect of utilizing diverse bone marrow-derived cell source including bone marrow concentrate (BMC) and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) for cartilage tissue engineering was investigated in this study. The biological constructs containing BMC/BMMSCs and articular tissue fragments were examined in vitro. Scanning electron microscopic images revealed the cells in the constructs with BMC grew and attached into tissue fragments well. Histological results displayed neotissue formations with positive Alcian blue staining in the BMC-articular tissue fragment constructs. Moreover, the gene expression of type II collagen in the constructs with BMC was higher than ones with BMMSCs after 28 and 42 days of culture. Our results demonstrated the biological constructs containing BMC and articular fragments contributed better chondrogenesis. BMC would be a potential candidate of cell source for cartilage tissue engineering and cartilage repair.