Cieśla Julia, Tomsia Marcin
School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia, 18 Medyków Street, 40-752, Katowice, Poland.
Department of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Toxicology, Medical University of Silesia, 18 Medyków Street, 40-752, Katowice, Poland.
Histochem Cell Biol. 2025 Jan 25;163(1):27. doi: 10.1007/s00418-025-02356-7.
Cartilage diseases and injuries are considered difficult to treat owing to the low regenerative capacity of this tissue. Using stem cells (SCs) is one of the potential methods of treating cartilage defects and creating functional cartilage models for transplants. Their ability to proliferate and to generate functional chondrocytes, a natural tissue environment, and extracellular cartilage matrix, makes SCs a new opportunity for patients with articular injuries or incurable diseases, such as osteoarthritis (OA). The review summarizes the most important scientific reports on biology and mechanisms of SC-derived chondrogenesis and sources of SCs for chondrogenic purposes. Additionally, it focuses on the genetic mechanisms, microRNA (miRNA) regulation, and epigenetic processes steering the chondrogenic differentiation of SCs. It also describes the attempts to create functional cartilage with tissue engineering using growth factors and scaffolds. Finally, it presents the challenges that researchers will have to face in the future to effectuate SC differentiation methods into clinical practice for treating cartilage diseases.
由于软骨组织的再生能力较低，软骨疾病和损伤被认为难以治疗。使用干细胞是治疗软骨缺损和创建用于移植的功能性软骨模型的潜在方法之一。干细胞具有增殖能力，并能生成功能性软骨细胞、自然组织环境和细胞外软骨基质，这为患有关节损伤或诸如骨关节炎（OA）等不治之症的患者带来了新的希望。这篇综述总结了关于干细胞软骨生成的生物学和机制以及用于软骨生成目的的干细胞来源的最重要的科学报告。此外，它还聚焦于指导干细胞软骨分化的遗传机制、微小RNA（miRNA）调控和表观遗传过程。它还描述了利用生长因子和支架通过组织工程创建功能性软骨的尝试。最后，它提出了研究人员未来为使干细胞分化方法应用于治疗软骨疾病的临床实践而必须面对的挑战。
