Background: Particulated juvenile allograft cartilage (PJAC) has a good short-term clinical efficacy in repairing articular cartilage defects, but the proliferation ability of PJAC and the biological characteristics of transplanted cells after transplantation are still unclear.
Purpose: To study the cartilage proliferation ability of PJAC in repairing full-thickness cartilage defects and the reasons for proliferation to provide experimental evidence for its clinical application.
Study design: Controlled laboratory study.
Methods: Twenty Guizhou minipigs were randomly divided into the experimental group and control group. In all minipigs, an 8-mm cylindrical full-thickness cartilage defect was created in the femoral trochlea of one knee. The experimental group received PJAC transplantation from five juvenile donors of Guizhou minipigs (PJAC group; n = 10) and the control group received transplantation of autologous cartilage chips (ACC group; n = 10). Both groups were followed at 1 and 3 months after surgery, immunohistochemical evaluation of the tissue sections Ki-67 and Lin28 was conducted, the positive rate was calculated according to the staining, and the proliferation ability of PJAC was analyzed.
Results: All 20 Guizhou minipigs were followed, and there was no infection or incision healing disorder after surgery. By Ki-67 and Lin28 immunohistochemical tests, the positive rate of Ki-67 was 88.9 ± 0.2% in the PJAC group and 28.3 ± 3.6% in the ACC group at 1 month, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05); the positive rate of Lin28 was 34.6 ± 3.3% in the PJAC group and 7.6 ± 1.4% in the ACC group at 1 month, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). At 3 months, the positive rates of Ki-67 in the PJAC group and ACC group were 53.6 ± 6.9% and 1.97 ± 0.3%, respectively (P < 0.05); the positive rates of Lin28 were 86.6 ± 3.3% and 1.4 ± 0.3%, respectively (P < 0.01).
Conclusion: A large animal model was established with Guizhou minipigs, and the expressions of Ki-67 protein and Lin28 protein detected by immunohistochemistry in the repaired transplanted tissue of the PJAC group were stronger than those of adult cartilage. The proliferation of PJAC within 3 months of transplantation was stronger than that of adult cartilage. The enhanced expression of Lin28 may be one of the mechanisms by which PJAC achieved stronger proliferation ability than adult cartilage. PJAC technology has shown good application prospects for repairing cartilage defects.
Keywords: Autologous cartilage chip transplantation; Donor cells; Ki-67; Lin28; Particulated juvenile allograft cartilage; Proliferation.