The restoration of full-thickness cartilage defects with BMSCs and TGF-beta 1 loaded PLGA/fibrin gel constructs

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) sponge was filled with fibrin gel, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) to obtain a construct for cartilage restoration in vivo. The PLGA sponge lost its weight steadily in vitro, but degraded much faster in the construct of PLGA/fibrin gel/BMSCs implanted in the full-thickness cartilage defects. The in vivo degradation of the fibrin gel inside the construct was prolonged to 12 wk too. The CM-DiI labeled allogenic BMSCs were detectable after transplantation (implantation) into the defects for 12 wk by small animal in vivo fluorescence imaging and confocal laser scanning microscopy. In vivo repair experiments were firstly performed by implantation of the PLGA/fibrin gel/BMSCs and PLGA/BMSCs constructs into full-thickness cartilage defects (3 mm in diameter and 4 mm in depth) of New Zealand white rabbits for 12 wk. The defects implanted with the PLGA/fibrin gel/BMSCs constructs were filled with cartilage-like tissue containing collagen type II and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), while those by the PLGA/BMSCs constructs were filled with fibrous-like tissues. To repair the defects of larger size (4 mm in diameter), addition of growth factors was mandatory as exemplified here by further loading of TGF-β1. Implantation of the PLGA/fibrin gel/BMSCs/TGF-β1 constructs into the full-thickness cartilage defects for 12 wk resulted in full restoration of the osteochondral tissue. The neo-cartilage integrated well with its surrounding cartilage and subchondral bone. Immunohistochemical and GAGs staining confirmed the similar distribution of collagen type II and GAGs in the regenerated cartilage as that of hyaline cartilage. The quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) revealed that the cartilage special genes were significantly up-regulated compared with those of the TGF-β1 absent constructs.