TISSUE ENGINEERING WITH MENISCUS CELLS DERIVED FROM SURGICAL DEBRIS

Objective—Injuries to the avascular regions of the meniscus fail to heal and so are treated by resection of the damaged tissue. This alleviates symptoms but fails to restore normal load transmission in the knee. Tissue engineering functional meniscus constructs for re-implantation may improve tissue repair. While numerous studies have developed scaffolds for meniscus repair, the most appropriate autologous cell source remains to be determined. In this study, we hypothesized that the debris generated from common meniscectomy procedures would possess cells with potential for forming replacement tissue. We also hypothesized that donor age and the disease status would influence the ability of derived cells to generate functional, fibrocartilaginous matrix. Methods—Meniscus derived cells (MDCs) were isolated from waste tissue of ten human donors (seven partial meniscectomies, three total knee arthroplasties) ranging in age from 18–84 years. MDCs were expanded in monolayer culture through passage two and seeded onto fiber-aligned biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds and cultured in a chemically-defined media. Mechanical properties, biochemical content, and histological features were evaluated over ten weeks of culture. Results—Results demonstrated that cells from every donor contributed to increasing biochemica