Objective: To study the new way to repair the defect of the articular cartilage.
Method: The articular-epiphyseal cartilage complexes from 8 newborn rabbits were enzymatically dissolved, and the chondrocytes were seeded onto the fibrous chitin mesh in a 96-well plate in DMEM medium.
Result: Cultured for 21 days, the "membrane-like cartilage" was strong enough to be transferred. At the 110th day, the semitransparent cartilage discs were 4.4 mm in diameter and 14.8 mg in weightness. Staining of SatranO showed that engineered "cartilage" was bound of GAGs and the chondrocytes expressed the mRNA of type II collagen by in situ hybridization, which is resemble to that of the normal hyaline cartilage beside the biodegraded fibrous chitin embedded in. The "membrane-like cartilage" cultured for 21 days was grafted into the articular cartilage defects of knee of adult rabbits. Seven of 9 defects healed with new cartilage and the structure was well organized in 16 weeks.
Conclusion: The biodegradable fibrous chitin is a good "matrix" for cartilage tissue engineering. The engineered "cartilage" is true hyaline cartilage, which is a new "alive cartilage tissue" for the repairment of the defect of articular cartilage.