Current Advances in the Regeneration of Degenerated Articular Cartilage: A Literature Review on Tissue Engineering and Its Recent Clinical Translation

Abstract

Functional ability is the basis of healthy aging. Articular cartilage degeneration is amongst the most prevalent degenerative conditions that cause adverse impacts on the quality of life; moreover, it represents a key predisposing factor to osteoarthritis (OA). Both the poor capacity of articular cartilage for self-repair and the unsatisfactory outcomes of available clinical interventions make innovative tissue engineering a promising therapeutic strategy for articular cartilage repair. Significant progress was made in this field; however, a marked heterogeneity in the applied biomaterials, biofabrication, and assessments is nowadays evident by the huge number of research studies published to date. Accordingly, this literature review assimilates the most recent advances in cell-based and cell-free tissue engineering of articular cartilage and also focuses on the assessments performed via various in vitro studies, ex vivo models, preclinical in vivo animal models, and clinical studies in order to provide a broad overview of the latest findings and clinical translation in the context of degenerated articular cartilage and OA.

Keywords: biomaterials; cartilage regeneration; clinical translation; tissue engineering.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of the articular cartilage structure and biochemical composition [15].

Figure 2

The International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) Cartilage Lesion Classification Method. Image reprinted with permission from the ICRS Cartilage Injury Evaluation Package (http://www.cartilage.org/, accessed on the 1 November 2021).