Tissue-Engineering Strategies to Repair Chondral and Osteochondral Tissue in Osteoarthritis: Use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Focal chondral or osteochondral lesions can be painful and disabling because they have insufficient intrinsic repair potential, and constitute one of the major extrinsic risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA). Attention has, therefore, been paid to regenerative therapeutic procedures for the early treatment of cartilaginous defects. Current treatments for OA are not regenerative and have little effect on the progressive degeneration of joint tissue. One major reason for this underrepresentation of regenerative therapy is that approaches to treating OA with cell-based strategies have to take into consideration the larger sizes of the defects, as compared with isolated focal articular-cartilage defects, and the underlying disease process. Here, we review current treatment strategies using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for chondral and osteochondral tissue repair in trauma and OA-affected joints. We discuss tissue-engineering approaches, in preclinical large-animal models and clinical studies in humans, which use crude bone-marrow aspirates and MSCs from different tissue sources in combination with bioactive agents and materials.