Shi Jie, Liang Jiulong, Guo Bingyu, Zhang Yu, Hui Qiang, Chang Peng, Tao Kai
Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenyang, China.
Stem Cells Int. 2017;2017:1709582. doi: 10.1155/2017/1709582. Epub 2017 Jan 4.
Articular cartilage injury and defect caused by trauma and chronic osteoarthritis vascularity are very common, while the repair of injured cartilage remains a great challenge due to its limited healing capacity. Stem cell-based tissue engineering provides a promising treatment option for injured articular cartilage because of the cells potential for multiple differentiations. However, its application has been largely limited by stem cell type, number, source, proliferation, and differentiation. We hypothesized that (1) adipose-derived stem cells are ideal seed cells for articular cartilage repair because of their accessibility and abundance and (2) the microenvironment of articular cartilage could induce adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) to differentiate into chondrocytes. In order to test our hypotheses, we isolated stem cells from rabbit adipose tissues and cocultured these ADSCs with rabbit articular cartilage chondrocytes. We found that when ADSCs were cocultured with chondrocytes, the proliferation of articular cartilage chondrocytes was promoted, the apoptosis of chondrocytes was inhibited, and the osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of ADSCs was enhanced. The study on the mechanism of this coculture system indicated that the role of this coculture system is similar to the function of TGF-1 in the promotion of chondrocytes.
由创伤和慢性骨关节炎血管形成引起的关节软骨损伤和缺损非常常见，而受损软骨的修复因其有限的愈合能力仍然是一个巨大的挑战。基于干细胞的组织工程由于细胞具有多种分化潜能，为受损关节软骨提供了一种有前景的治疗选择。然而，其应用在很大程度上受到干细胞类型、数量、来源、增殖和分化的限制。我们假设：（1）脂肪来源的干细胞因其易于获取和数量丰富，是关节软骨修复的理想种子细胞；（2）关节软骨的微环境可诱导脂肪来源的干细胞（ADSCs）分化为软骨细胞。为了验证我们的假设，我们从兔脂肪组织中分离干细胞，并将这些ADSCs与兔关节软骨软骨细胞共培养。我们发现，当ADSCs与软骨细胞共培养时，关节软骨软骨细胞的增殖得到促进，软骨细胞的凋亡受到抑制，并且ADSCs的成骨和成软骨分化增强。对该共培养系统机制的研究表明，该共培养系统的作用类似于TGF-1在促进软骨细胞方面的功能。
