New cell-based technologies in bone and cartilage tissue engineering. II. Cartilage regeneration

A tissue engineering, cell-based therapeutic approach could be essential for extensive bone or cartilage reconstruction. This article is divided in two chapters and describes new cell-based surgical techniques for cartilage and bone reconstruction. The second part of the article, regarding cartilage repair, describes a new arthroscopic surgical technique for tissue engineered cartilage grafting. A 3-dimensional hyaluronic acid support is used for autologous chondrocyte culturing. The technique reduces morbidity of classic autologous implant avoiding open surgery and periosteal flap use. With this technique is possible to reduce the patient morbidity, time and cost of surgery.