Osteochondral samples of medial femoral condyles from adult ewes containing full-thickness articular cartilage defects treated with marrow stimulation were obtained after 6 month in vivo and scanned in a 9.4 T μMRI.
Following marrow stimulation, the region of the articular cartilage defect was clearly distinguishable.
Many studies have been reported for the treatment of osteochondral defect mainly including bone marrow stimulation and cartilage transplantation.
Yoon SH, Shim YS, Park YH, Chung JK, Nam JH, Kim MO et al. Complete spinal cord injury treatment using autologous bone marrow cell transplantation and bone marrow stimulation with granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor: Phase I/II clinical trial.
Bioengineered scaffolds implanted alone, or in conjunction with marrow stimulation in autologous matrix-induced chondrogenesis, effectively fill joint defects and improve function, but it is currently unclear whether the resulting repair tissue recapitulates the properties of AC [ 18, 19].
Marrow stimulation techniques [ 1, 2] are the most prevalent, but defects are often filled with fibrous cartilage and the repaired cartilage later degenerates [ 3].
Marrow stimulation procedures promote cartilage repair by stimulating bone marrow through the subchondral bone and by producing blood clots containing MSCs on the articular surface (Madry et al. 2010).
It was previously shown that hybrid chitosan/blood implants solidified in situ over the surface of microfracture or microdrill defects elicit a more hyaline repair compared to marrow stimulation alone [ 8, 9].
Cartilage marrow stimulation procedures (microfracture), autografts, and allografts may be used to attempt repair of isolated cartilage defects of the tibial plafond or the talus, and block allografts may be used to replace a larger portion of talus [5, 23].
