Repair of osteochondral defects with autologous chondrocytes seeded onto bioceramic scaffold in sheep

At present, the most popular biomaterials used in cartilage tissue engineering are synthetic polymers. However, problems - such as acidic by-product accumulation and side effects in local or systemic inflammatory reactions during in vivo degradation - are drawing much attention. The polymers are also highly hydrophobic and degrade within 4 weeks, allowing insufficient time to support neocartilage formation. All these have made polymers less promising in clinical application. In this study, we tested a new bioceramic scaffold made of artificial synthesized powder of beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) in a sheep model. Osteochondral defects were filled with a bioceramic - chondrocyte construct and neocartilage tissue completely resurfaced the cartilage defects after 24 weeks. Typical hyaline cartilage structure was generated in the engineered cartilage. Biodegradation of bioceramic was notable, leading to bioceramic fragmentation and particle formation. Numerous ceramic particles ( size, 0.5 - 1.9 mum) and numerous macrophages were observed at the ceramic - tissue interface as well as in the marrow tissue. No macrophages were visible in the neocartilage tissue. Although long-term in vivo study is needed to further determine the pathological sequences of the beta-TCP-based cartilage construct, this study suggests that this bioceramic might be used to repair chondral or osteochondral defects and could be used as a scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering.