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Build it and they will come: regeneration of joint surfaces by cell homing

PainSci » bibliography » Lee et al 2010
updated
Tags: arthritis, regeneration, neat, aging, pain problems

One article on PainSci cites Lee 2010: Salamander and Regeneration Science

PainSci commentary on Lee 2010: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.

Build it and the cells will come. This proof-of-concept study demonstrated what happens if you replace the end of a rabbit’s femur with an empty plastic “scaffolding” of exactly the same shape, and then fertilize it with transforming growth factor beta3. Cells migrate into the framework and start building bone and cartilage! “The entire articular surface of the synovial joint can regenerate without cell transplantation.” Without the growth factor, not much happened: much less than half as many cells moved into the new habitat.

These findings suggest that “regeneration of complex tissues is probable by homing of endogenous cells.”

~ Paul Ingraham

original abstract Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.

BACKGROUND: A common approach for tissue regeneration is cell delivery, for example by direct transplantation of stem or progenitor cells. An alternative, by recruitment of endogenous cells, needs experimental evidence. We tested the hypothesis that the articular surface of the synovial joint can regenerate with a biological cue spatially embedded in an anatomically correct bioscaffold.

METHODS: In this proof of concept study, the surface morphology of a rabbit proximal humeral joint was captured with laser scanning and reconstructed by computer-aided design. We fabricated an anatomically correct bioscaffold using a composite of poly-varepsilon-caprolactone and hydroxyapatite. The entire articular surface of unilateral proximal humeral condyles of skeletally mature rabbits was surgically excised and replaced with bioscaffolds spatially infused with transforming growth factor beta3 (TGFbeta3)-adsorbed or TGFbeta3-free collagen hydrogel. Locomotion and weightbearing were assessed 1-2, 3-4, and 5-8 weeks after surgery. At 4 months, regenerated cartilage samples were retrieved from in vivo and assessed for surface fissure, thickness, density, chondrocyte numbers, collagen type II and aggrecan, and mechanical properties.

FINDINGS: Ten rabbits received TGFbeta3-infused bioscaffolds, ten received TGFbeta3-free bioscaffolds, and three rabbits underwent humeral-head excision without bioscaffold replacement. All animals in the TGFbeta3-delivery group fully resumed weightbearing and locomotion 3-4 weeks after surgery, more consistently than those in the TGFbeta3-free group. Defect-only rabbits limped at all times. 4 months after surgery, TGFbeta3-infused bioscaffolds were fully covered with hyaline cartilage in the articular surface. TGFbeta3-free bioscaffolds had only isolated cartilage formation, and no cartilage formation occurred in defect-only rabbits. TGFbeta3 delivery yielded uniformly distributed chondrocytes in a matrix with collagen type II and aggrecan and had significantly greater thickness (p=0.044) and density (p<0.0001) than did cartilage formed without TGFbeta3. Compressive and shear properties of TGFbeta3-mediated articular cartilage did not differ from those of native articular cartilage, and were significantly greater than those of cartilage formed without TGFbeta3. Regenerated cartilage was avascular and integrated with regenerated subchondral bone that had well defined blood vessels. TGFbeta3 delivery recruited roughly 130% more cells in the regenerated articular cartilage than did spontaneous cell migration without TGFbeta3.

INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggest that the entire articular surface of the synovial joint can regenerate without cell transplantation. Regeneration of complex tissues is probable by homing of endogenous cells, as exemplified by stratified avascular cartilage and vascularised bone. Whether cell homing acts as an adjunctive or alternative approach of cell delivery for regeneration of tissues with different organisational complexity warrants further investigation.

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