Authors: Nazish Ahmed William L Stanford Rita A Kandel
Publish Date: 2007/06/09
Volume: 36, Issue: 10, Pages: 909-912
Abstract
Treatment of damaged articular cartilage is problematic due in part to the avascularity of the tissue Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering offer new approaches for the repair or replacement of damaged or diseased tissue There is now proofofconcept to support cellbased regeneration of cartilage but one of the major issues limiting its use clinically is the availability of a cell source that will form sufficient amounts of tissue comparable to in vivo cartilage both in composition and in mechanical properties One possible option is to use stem and progenitor cells This perspective will describe the promise and limitations of the use of stem cells for cartilage repairArticular cartilage is a unique tissue whose functions are the distribution of applied load to the underlying subchondral bone and to provide along with the synovial fluid a low friction interface between the contacting surfaces of the joint 1 Adult articular cartilage has a
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