[A study of injectable autologous tissue engineering cartilage].
OBJECTIVE
To study the regeneration of injectable autologous cartilage in New Zealand rabbits model.


METHODS
Chondrocytes were harvested from auricle of New Zealand rabbits. The cells were mixed with sodium alginate (SA) and temperature dependent synthetic hydrogel (TDSH) to generate final cellular density of 50 x 10(9)/L, and then the chondrocytes-SA and chondrocytes-TDSH composites were injected into the dorsal subcutaneous tissue of New Zealand rabbits with form of autologous cells grafts respectively. The specimen and histology were observed in the process of cartilage fabrication in 4, 8, 12 weeks.


RESULTS
Four weeks after injection, the hard knobbles were formed subcutaneously. Eight and twelve weeks after injection, the knobbles was much harder and showed the appearance of cartilage. In histological analysis, the immature cartilage can be observed after 4 weeks. In the eight and twelve weeks, the mature cartilage was formed and showed strong GAG positive expressed by safranine-O.


CONCLUSIONS
Neocartilage could be regenerated through injection of alginate and synthetic hydrogel mixed with chondrocytes. Using tissue-engineering methods, Injectable cartilage may have great potential of clinical use in the future.
Yang
W
W
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
Li
S
S
Chen
F
F
D000818:Animals; D001861:Bone Regeneration; D002356:Cartilage / Q000502:physiology*; D007267:Injections; D011817:Rabbits; D023822:Tissue Engineering