a Department of Joint Surgery , The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University , Guangzhou , China.
b Guangdong key laboratory of orthopaedic technology and implant materials , The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University , Guangzhou , China.
Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2018 Nov;18(11):1151-1158. doi: 10.1080/14712598.2018.1533116. Epub 2018 Oct 10.
Cartilage tissue engineering has rapidly developed in recent decades, exhibiting promising potential to regenerate and repair cartilage. However, the origin of a large amount of a suitable seed cell source is the major bottleneck for the further clinical application of cartilage tissue engineering. The use of a monoculture of passaged chondrocytes or mesenchymal stem cells results in undesired outcomes, such as fibrocartilage formation and hypertrophy. In the last two decades, co-cultures of chondrocytes and a variety of mesenchymal stem cells have been intensively investigated in vitro and in vivo, shedding light on the perspective of co-culture in cartilage tissue engineering.
We summarize the recent literature on the application of heterologous cell co-culture systems in cartilage tissue engineering and compare the differences between direct and indirect co-culture systems as well as discuss the underlying mechanisms.
Co-culture system is proven to address many issues encountered by monocultures in cartilage tissue engineering, including reducing the number of chondrocytes needed and alleviating the dedifferentiation of chondrocytes. With the further development and knowledge of biomaterials, cartilage tissue engineering that combines the co-culture system and advanced biomaterials is expected to solve the difficult problem regarding the regeneration of functional cartilage.
近年来，软骨组织工程发展迅速，在软骨再生和修复方面展现出巨大的潜力。然而，大量合适种子细胞来源的问题仍是软骨组织工程进一步临床应用的主要瓶颈。传代软骨细胞或间充质干细胞的单一培养会导致不理想的结果，如纤维软骨形成和肥大。在过去的二十年中，体外和体内研究了软骨细胞与各种间充质干细胞的共培养，为软骨组织工程中的共培养提供了新的思路。
我们总结了最近关于异种细胞共培养系统在软骨组织工程中应用的文献，并比较了直接共培养系统和间接共培养系统之间的差异，同时探讨了潜在的作用机制。
共培养系统已被证明可以解决软骨组织工程中单细胞培养中遇到的许多问题，包括减少所需的软骨细胞数量和减轻软骨细胞去分化。随着生物材料的进一步发展和认识，结合共培养系统和先进生物材料的软骨组织工程有望解决功能性软骨再生的难题。
