Repair of cartilage defect in the rabbit with cultured mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow

Abstract

In 16 mature New Zealand white rabbits mesenchymal stem cells were aspirated from the bone marrow, cultured in monolayer and implanted on to a full-thickness osteochondral defect artificially made on the patellar groove of the same rabbit. A further 13 rabbits served as a control group. The rabbits were killed after 14 weeks. Healing of the defect was investigated histologically using haematoxylin and eosin and Safranin-O staining and with immunohistochemical staining for type-II collagen. We also used a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect mRNA of type-I and type-II collagen. The semiquantitative histological scores were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p < 0.05). In the experimental group immunohistochemical staining on newly formed cartilage was more intense for type-II collagen in the matrix and RT-PCR from regenerated cartilage detected mRNA for type-II collagen in mature chondrocytes. These findings suggest that repair of cartilage defects can be enhanced by the implantation of cultured mesenchymal stem cells.

Isolation, expansion and differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells from rabbits' bone marrow

“…Primary manual counting showed the average of 4.7x10 6 mononuclear cells per ml of aspirated bone marrow, which is higher than the average of 3.4x10 6 reported by Im et al (2001), close to the average of 5x10 6 reported by Yanai et al (2005) and below the average of 20x10 6 cells/ml reported by Planka et al (2008), all references of cells isolated from rabbits' bone marrow. These differences between numbers of isolated mononuclear cells may be related to the protocol used for cell harvesting and also to the variation that can occur naturally between individuals of same species and under same conditions (Eurides et al 2010).…”

“…As rabbits has a faster skeletal change and bone turnover when compared to other species (Castañeda et al 2006), they are usually the first choice of researchers as animal model to assess the in vivo bone repair (Li et al 2015). Although there are some studies available in the scientific scope about rabbits' MSCs utilization to repair different tissues (Im et al 2001, Mehrabani et al 2015, Pelizzo et al 2015, Semyari et al 2015 these studies usually fail at some point for not mentioning the whole method used to harvest and/or to prove that these cells are really undifferentiated stromal cells.…”

Human mesenchymal stem cells implantation into the degenerated coccygeal disc of the rat

“…MSCs can be extracted from several organs, such as fetal liver, umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, placenta, adipose tissue, muscle, and dermis (Kraemer 1995), and can be induced to differentiate into cells of the articular cartilage Liechty et al 2000;Toma et al 2002) or chondrocyte lineages (Im et al 2001;Quintavalla et al 2002;Wakitani et al 1994). Furthermore, as IVD cells have phenotypes similar to those of chondrocytes, it would appear that IVD cells are differentiated from MSCs (Risbud et al 2004).…”

Chondrogenic potential of progenitor cells derived from human bone marrow and adipose tissue: A patient-matched comparison

“…However, the difficulties with this technique include the need for two major surgeries, the limited availability of donor sites for chondrocyte harvest, a lengthy ex vivo culture expansion and donor site morbidity. Animal models have shown some promising results using progenitor cells in the repair of articular cartilage defects [ 13,241. Progenitor cells with chondrogenic potential have been isolated from many postnatal tissues including bone marrow stroma, synovial tissue, and periosteum [ 14,15,17,26].…”