Transplantation of meniscus regenerated by tissue engineering with a scaffold derived from a rat meniscus and mesenchymal stromal cells derived from rat bone marrow

Abstract:  The purpose of this study was to assess transplantation of regenerated menisci using scaffolds from normal allogeneic menisci and bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) of rats. We reported that scaffolds derived from normal menisci seeded with BM-MSCs in vitro could form meniscal tissues within 4 weeks. Then, we hypothesized that our tissues could be more beneficial than allogeneic menisci regarding early maturation and chondroprotective effect. Bone marrow was aspirated from enhanced green fluorescent protein transgenic rats. BM-MSCs were isolated and seeded onto scaffolds which were prepared from Sprague–Dawley rat menisci. After 4 weeks in coculture, the tissues were transplanted to the defect of menisci. Repopulation of BM-MSCs and expression of extracellular matrices were observed in the transplanted tissues at 4 weeks after surgery. At 8 weeks, articular cartilage in the cell-free group was more damaged compared to that in the cell-seeded group or the meniscectomy group.