In Vitro Repair of Meniscal Radial Tear With Hydrogels Seeded With Adipose Stem Cells and TGF-β3.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Background Radial tears of the meniscus are a common knee injury, frequently resulting in osteoarthritis. To date, there are no established, effective treatments for radial tears. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) may be an attractive cell source for meniscal regeneration because they can be quickly isolated in large number and are capable of undergoing induced fibrochondrogenic differentiation mediated by transforming growth factor β3 (TGF-β3). However, the use of ASCs for meniscal repair is largely unexplored. Hypothesis ASC-seeded hydrogels with preloaded TGF-β3 will improve meniscal healing of radial tears, as modeled in an explant model. Study design Controlled laboratory study. Methods With an institutional review board-exempted protocol, human ASCs were isolated from the infrapatellar fat pads of 3 donors, obtained after total knee replacement, and characterized. ASCs were encapsulated in photocrosslinkable methacrylated gelatin hydrogels to form 3-dimensional constructs, which were placed into tissue culture. The effect of TGF-β3-whether preloaded into the hydrogel or added as a soluble medium supplement-on matrix-sulfated proteoglycan deposition in the constructs was evaluated. A meniscal explant culture model was used to simulate meniscal repair. Cylindrical-shaped explants were excised from the inner avascular region of adult bovine menisci, and a radial tear was mod

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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