Generic placeholder image

Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1574-888X
ISSN (Online): 2212-3946

Chondrogenesis and Developments in Our Understanding

Author(s): Nigel Mabvuure, Sandip Hindocha, Daniel Jordan and Wasim S. Khan

Volume 7, Issue 4, 2012

Page: [243 - 259] Pages: 17

DOI: 10.2174/157488812800793090

Price: $65

Abstract

Conditions affecting cartilage through damage or age-related degeneration pose significant challenges to individual patients and their healthcare systems. The disease burden will rise in the future as life expectancy increases. This has resulted in vigorous efforts to develop novel therapies to meet current and future needs. Due to the limited regenerative capacity of cartilage, in vitro tissue engineering techniques have emerged as the favoured technique by which to develop replacements. Tissue engineering is mainly concerned with developing cartilage replacements in the form of chondrocyte suspensions and three-dimensional scaffolds seeded with chondrocytes. One major limiting factor in the development of clinically useful cartilage constructs is our understanding of the process by which cartilage is formed, chondrogenesis. For example, techniques of culturing chondrocytes in vitro have been used for decades, resulting in chondrocytelike cells which produce an extracellular matrix of similar composition to native cartilage, but with inferior physical properties. It has now been realised that one aspect of chondrogenesis which had been ignored was the physical context in which cartilage exists in vivo. This has resulted in the development of bioreactor systems which aim to introduce various physical stresses to engineered cartilage in a controlled environment. This has resulted in some improvements in the quality of tissue engineered cartilage. This is but one example of how the knowledge of chondrogenesis has been translated into research practice. This paper aims to review what is currently known about the process of chondrogenesis and discusses how this knowledge can be applied to tissue engineering.

Keywords: Cartilage development, cartilage tissue engineering, chondrocyte differentiation, chondrogenesis, condensation, regenerative capacity, scaffolds, dwarfism, ARTICULAR CARTILAGE DIFFERENTIATION, stem cells


Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy