Cartilage regeneration and repair testing in a surrogate large animal model

The aging human population is experiencing increasing numbers of symptoms related to its degenerative articular cartilage (AC), which has stimulated the investigation of methods to regenerate or repair AC. However, the seemingly inherent limited capacity for AC to regenerate persists to confound the various repair treatment strategies proposed or studied. Animal models for testing AC implant devices and reparative materials are an important and required part of the Food and Drug Administration approval process. Although final testing is ultimately performed in humans, animal testing allows for a wider range of parameters and combinations of test materials subjected to all the biological interactions of a living system. We review here considerations, evaluations, and experiences with selection and use of animal models and describe two untreated lesion models useful for testing AC repair strategies. These created lesion models, one deep (6 mm and through the subchondral plate) the other shallow (to the level of the subchondral bone plate) were placed in the middle one-third of the medial femoral condyle of the knee joints of goats. At 1-year neither the deep nor the shallow full-thickness chondral defects generated a repair that duplicated natural AC. Moreover, progressive deleterious changes occurred in the AC surrounding the defects. There are challenges in translation from animals to humans as anatomy and structures are different and immobilization to protect delicate repairs can be difficult. The tissues potentially generated by proposed cartilage repair strategies must be compared with the spontaneous changes that occur in similarly created untreated lesions. The prevention of the secondary changes in the surrounding cartilage and subchondral bone described in this article should be addressed with the introduction of treatments for repairs of the articulating surface.