Gene transfer and living release of transforming growth factor-beta3 for cartilage tissue engineering applications

Cartilage restoration continues to present a tremendous clinical challenge due to its nonvascular nature. Many studies have demonstrated that chondrogenesis of progenitor cells can be achieved in vitro by manual dose of growth factors; however, it remains a vital difficulty in feeding growth factors to implanted therapeutic cells in vivo. Herein, we constructed recombinant adenovirus encoding human transforming growth factor-beta3 (hTGF-beta3) and practiced it in rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells and articular chondrocytes for cartilage regeneration. Optimal viable transduction and transgenic hTGF-beta3 production were achieved; consequently, positive expression of cartilage marker-collagen type II was enabled in the infected progenitors. We thus conclude that recombinant adenovirus encoding TGF-beta3 gene has been successfully established and validated for cartilage tissue engineering applications.