Material properties of fresh cold-stored allografts for osteochondral defects at 1 year.
Little is known about the long-term properties of fresh cold-stored osteochondral allograft tissue. We hypothesized fresh cold-stored tissue would yield superior material properties in an in vivo ovine model compared to those using freeze-thawed acellular grafts. In addition, we speculated that a long storage time would yield less successful grafts. We created 10-mm defects in medial femoral condyles of 20 sheep. Defects were reconstructed with allograft plugs stored at 4 degrees C for 1, 14, and 42 days; control specimens were freeze-thawed or defect-only. At 52 weeks, animals were euthanized and retrieved grafts were analyzed for cell viability, gross morphology, histologic grade, and biomechanical and biochemical analysis. Explanted cold-stored tissue had superior histologic scores over freeze-thawed and defect-only grafts. Specimens stored for 1 and 42 days had higher equilibrium moduli and proteoglycan content than freeze-thawed specimens. We observed no difference among any of the cold-stored specimens for chondrocyte viability, histology, equilibrium aggregate modulus, proteoglycan content, or hypotonic swelling. Reconstructing cartilage defects with cold-stored allograft resulted in superior histologic and biomechanical properties compared with acellular freeze-thawed specimens; however, storage time did not appear to be a critical factor in the success of the transplanted allograft.
Ranawat
Anil S
AS
Hospital for Special Surgery, Institute for Cartilage Repair, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Vidal
Armando F
AF
Chen
Chris T
CT
Zelken
Jonathan A
JA
Turner
A Simon
AS
Williams
Riley J
RJ
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000637:transplantation*; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D023421:Models, Animal; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000032:analysis; D012034:Refrigeration; D012756:Sheep; D013997:Time Factors; D014021:Tissue Preservation; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
D011509:Proteoglycans