[Regenerative medicine for cartilage defect in rheumatic disease]

Persistent inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can lead to the profound degradation and defect of articular cartilage. We can treat or induce the regeneration for the partial cartilage defect using the autologous chondrocytes implantation (ACI) or the matrix-assisted ACI. However, these regenerative methods cannot be applicable for the large size defect due to their limitation of the formable size or available cell numbers. The cell sheet technology or the intra-articular injection technique using the mesenchymal stem cells or the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) could be applied for the large size cartilage defect in RA patients in the future after additional studies.