Autologous chondrocytes. Autologous chondrocyte implantation: more data needed

There is no standard surgical treatment for young adults with persistent, incapacitating symptoms of knee cartilage damage. ChondroCelect is the first cell therapy product to be authorised in the European Union. It contains a dense suspension of chondrocytes cultured from a biopsy of the patient's knee cartilage for 4 weeks before being reimplanted. Clinical evaluation of Chondro-Celect only includes one trial, versus subchondral microfracture, in 118 patients. After 3 years of follow-up, there was no difference in the symptom score between the groups. Histological outcome was better after autologous chondrocyte implantation, but methodological problems make it difficult to interpret the observed difference. Long-term functional outcomes remain to be determined. More joint complications occurred after autologous chondrocyte implantation than after subchondral bone microfracture: more frequently symptomatic cartilage hypertrophy (27% versus 13%, possibly related to the implantation technique), joint swelling (22% versus 6.6%), joint effusion (24% versus 9.8%), and joint crepitations (18% versus 6.6%). Autologous chondrocyte implantation was sometimes associated with flu-like syndrome (in 7.8% of patients), which did not occur with the microfracture technique. Autologous chondrocyte implantation is more complex than microfracture. During routine use, there is a risk that one patient will inadvertently receive chondrocytes collected from another patient, leading to a risk of rejection. In practice, this autologous chondrocyte product should only be used by highly specialised teams, and its assessment must continue.