Solchaga Luis A, Welter Jean F, Lennon Donald P, Caplan Arnold I
Department of Orthopedics, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Methods Mol Med. 2004;100:53-68. doi: 10.1385/1-59259-810-2:053.
It is well documented that adult cartilage has minimal self-repair ability. Current methods for treatment of cartilage injury focus on the relief of pain and inflammation and have met with limited long-term success. In the forefront of new therapeutic approaches, autologous chondrocyte transplantation is still only applied to a very small percentage of the patient population. Our laboratory has focused on cartilage repair using progenitor cells and studied their differentiation into cartilage. Adult mesenchymal stem cells are an attractive candidate as progenitor cells for cartilage repair because of their documented osteogenic and chondrogenic potential, ease of harvest, and ease of expansion in culture; furthermore, their use will obviate the need for harvesting precious healthy cartilage from a patient to obtain autologous chondrocytes for transplantation. However, the need to induce chondrogenic differentiation in the mesenchymal stem cells is superposed on other technical issues associated with cartilage repair; this adds a level of complexity over using mature chondrocytes. This chapter focuses on the methods involved in the isolation of human mesenchymal stem cells and their differentiation along the chondrogenic lineage. Although we have the technology to accomplish chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells, much is still to be learned regarding the regulatory mechanisms controlling the lineage transitions and maturation of the cartilaginous tissue.
已有充分文献记载，成人软骨的自我修复能力极小。目前治疗软骨损伤的方法主要集中在缓解疼痛和炎症，长期效果有限。在新的治疗方法前沿，自体软骨细胞移植仍仅应用于极少数患者群体。我们的实验室专注于利用祖细胞进行软骨修复，并研究它们向软骨的分化。成人间充质干细胞作为软骨修复的祖细胞颇具吸引力，因为它们具有已被证实的成骨和成软骨潜力、易于获取且易于在培养中扩增；此外，使用它们无需从患者身上获取珍贵的健康软骨来获得自体软骨细胞用于移植。然而，在间充质干细胞中诱导成软骨分化的需求叠加了与软骨修复相关的其他技术问题；这比使用成熟软骨细胞增加了一层复杂性。本章重点介绍人骨髓间充质干细胞的分离方法及其沿成软骨谱系的分化。尽管我们拥有实现干细胞成软骨分化的技术，但在控制软骨组织谱系转变和成熟的调控机制方面仍有许多有待了解之处。
