Allogeneic costal chondrocyte to repair the full-thickness cartilage defect on the knee of the rabbit model

Objective To explore the effects of allogeneic composites of costal chondrocyte/Sodium hyaluronate in repairing the full-thickness cartilage defects at knee joints of rabbit models.Methods Condrocytes were isolated and cultivated for evalutating biological activities.Full-thickness cartilage defect models from knee joints of 36 Newzealand rabbits were randomly and evenly allocated into blank,control and experimental groups.The blank group was subjected to no disposal.For control group,sodium hyaluronate was injected into the defect region,and costal chondrocytes/sodium hyaluronate composites were injected into the defect region in experimental group.Every 4 rabbits were executed randomly by the end of the first,second and third month respectively for specimens sampled from distal femur and the specimens were obsevered under direct vision,examined by histological staining and scored according to O' Driseoll,keeley and salter scales respectively.Results The 2nd generation costal chondrocytes were remarkably stained by alcian blue,sarranine O and collagen (type Ⅱ) respectively.The histological scores of experimental group (8.750 00 ± 0.500 00,14.000 00 ± 0.816 50,19.000 00 ± 0.816 50) were significantly higher than those of blank group (0.750 00 ±0.500 00,2.000 00 ±0.816 50,5.000 00 ±0.816 50) and blank group (0.500 00 ± 0.577 35,0,0) based upon statistical differences (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Costal chondrocytes of the 2nd genretation is qualified as seed cells for cartilage tissue engineering research.Allogeneic costal chondrocyte/sodium hyaluronate composites contribute to restore full-thickness cartilage defect at knee joints of the rabbit models satisfactorily. Key words: Cartilage defect;  Costal chondrocyte;  Tissue engineering