Editor's Summary and Q&A: Engineered cartilage heals skull defects
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Engineered cartilage heals skull defects
Lan Doan, Connor Kelley, Heather Luong, Jeryl English, Hector Gomez, Evan Johnson, Dianna Cody, Pauline Jackie Duke
American Journal of Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics
February 2010 (Vol. 137, Issue 2, Pages 162.e1-162.e9) Abstract |
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Introduction
The purposes of this study were to differentiate embryonic limb bud cells into cartilage, characterize the nodules produced, and determine their ability to heal a mouse skull defect.
Methods
Aggregated mouse limb bud cells (E12-E12.5), cultured in a bioreactor for 3 weeks, were analyzed by histology or implanted in 6 skull defects. Six controls had no implants. The mice were scanned with microcomputed tomography weekly. At 2 and 4 weeks, a mouse from each group was killed, and the defect region was prepared for histology.
Results
Chondrocytes in nodules were mainly hypertrophic. About 90% of the nodules mineralized. BrdU staining showed dividing cells in the perichondrium. Microcomputed tomography scans showed increasing mineral in implanted nodules that completely filled the defect by 6 weeks; defects in the control mice were not healed by then. At 2 and 4 weeks, the control skull sections showed only a thin bony layer over the defect. At 2 weeks, bone and cartilage filled the defects with implants, and the implants were well integrated with the adjacent cortical bone. At 4 weeks, the implant had turned almost entirely into bone.
Conclusions
Cartilage differentiated in the bioreactor and facilitated healing when implanted into a defect. Engineering cartilage to replace bone is an alternative to current methods of bone grafting.
Houston, Tex
Read the full text online at:www.ajodo.org, pages 162.e1-162.e9.
ABSTRACT