Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Cytokines in the repair of cartilage defects are difficult to maintain their effective local concentration, and the maintenance of time is very limited.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of repairing rabbit full-thickness articular cartilage defects with thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel containing stromal cell derived factor 1β and transforming growth factor β1.
METHODS: The thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel containing stromal cell derived factor 1β and transforming growth factor β1 was prepared by genipin crosslinking. Experimental full-thickness articular cartilage defects models were created in the condyles of the bilateral femurs of 24 rabbits. The 48 defects were randomly divided into three groups. In the combination group, the thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel containing stromal cell derived factor 1β and transforming growth factor β1 was used to fill the defects after subchondral bone drilling; in the drilling group, only subchondral bone drilling was performed; and the control group just left alone as controls.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel could be gelled within 3 minutes at 37 ℃. The hydrogel as multi-hole tree-dimensional scaffold with a dense structure and could sustain release stromal cell derived factor 1β and transforming growth factor β1. The combination group gave better results than drilling group and the control group in the aspects of cell morphology, type-Ⅱcollagen content and ultrastructure (P < 0.05). It shows the thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel containing stromal cell derived factor 1β and transforming growth factor β1 combined with subchondral bone drilling can repair rabbit full-thickness articular cartilage defects effectively.