Riparazione osteocondrale ”One Stage” con frammenti di cartilagine autologa in scaffold ibrido: studio in vitro su uomo e in vivo su modello animale (coniglio e capra).

Treatment of articular cartilage lesions is an orthopaedic common issue. The study shows a new ‘‘one-stage’’ surgical procedure for cartilage repair combining ‘‘in situ’’ minced autologous cartilage fragments, as source of viable cells, with a resorbable scaffold composed of hyaluronic acid derivative, fibrin glue and platelet rich plasma. In vitro, chondrocytes from cartilage fragments migrate and proliferated into the scaffold both in human and in animal (rabbit and goat) explant cultures. In vivo osteochondral defects were created in knees of 30 rabbits and 16 goats. Defects were treated with cartilage fragments embedded in the scaffold (Group A) or loaded with scaffold alone (Group B) or left untreated (Group C). Repair process was evaluated with morphological, histological and immunofluorescence analysis. In goat, treated defects have also been evaluated with nanoindentation and results compared with normal trochelar goat cartilage. This study suggests that minced autologous cartilage fragments embedded in this particular scaffold provide a viable source of cells and chondrogenic stimuli for a simple one-stage non-culture-based repair of osteochondral defects in a rabbit and goat model.