Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on June 15, 2004
Rheumatology 2004 43(9):1106-1108; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keh256
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Rheumatology Vol. 43 No. 9 © British Society for Rheumatology 2004; all rights reserved
Paper |
Which cartilage is regenerated, hyaline cartilage or fibrocartilage? Non-invasive ultrasonic evaluation of tissue-engineered cartilage
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nara Medical University, 840, Shijyo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, 634-8522, 1 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Amagasaki Site, 3-11-46, Wakaouji, Amagasaki, Hyogo 661-0974 and 2 Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, 53, Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Kyoto 606-8397, Japan.
Correspondence to: K. Hattori, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nara Medical University, 840, Shijyo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, 634-8522, Japan. E-mail: hattori{at}naramed-u.ac.jp
Objective. To investigate ultrasonic evaluation methods for detecting whether the repair tissue is hyaline cartilage or fibrocartilage in new cartilage regeneration therapy.
Methods. We examined four experimental rabbit models: a spontaneous repair model (group S), a large cartilage defect model (group L), a periosteal graft model (group P) and a tissue-engineered cartilage regeneration model (group T). From the resulting ultrasonic evaluation, we used %MM (the maximum magnitude of the measurement area divided by that of the intact cartilage) as a quantitative index of cartilage regeneration. The results of the ultrasonic evaluation were compared with the histological findings and histological score.
Results. The %MM values were 61.1 ± 16.5% in group S, 29.8 ± 15.1% in group L, 36.3 ± 18.3% in group P and 76.5 ± 18.7% in group T. The results showed a strong similarity to the histological scoring.
Conclusion. The ultrasonic examination showed that all the hyaline-like cartilage in groups S and T had a high %MM (more than 60%). Therefore, we could define the borderline between the two types of regenerated cartilage by the %MM.
KEY WORDS: Ultrasound, Articular cartilage, Evaluation, Hyaline cartilage, Tissue engineering