2022, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (34): 5553-5561

Alternative strategies for tissue engineering repair of meniscus injury

Du Chaozheng, Zhi Jiajia, Wang Yue, Wang Xinjun, Yuan Yinpeng, Wang Yuze   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Current surgical methods do not provide a long-term solution for meniscus regeneration and replacement, but tissue engineering techniques can provide alternative therapeutic strategies.
OBJECTIVE: To review the clinical strategy and tissue engineering research status of meniscus injury repair.
METHODS:   The literature collected on PubMed database, Medline database, Google academic database, CNKI, and Wanfang was searched by computer. Keywords were “meniscus injury; tissue engineering; meta-analysis; allografts; meniscus repair; scaffold; polymers; hydrogels; polyurethane; intestinal submucosa; polycaprolactone; polylactic; self-assembly; bone marrow MSC; meniscus derived stem cells; synovium derived MSCs; adipose derived MSC; co-culture; growth factor; transforming growth factor beta; basic fibroblast growth factor; insulin growth factor” in English, and “meniscus; mesenchymal stem cells; scaffold; growth factor; tissue engineering; compression modulus; tensile modulus; hydrogels; electrospinning” in Chinese. Retrieval period was from January 1, 2005 to October 1, 2020.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: As a hot research direction of meniscus treatment, meniscus tissue engineering has achieved abundant research results in all aspects, but there is a lack of a large number of long-term clinical trials to verify the accuracy of the conclusions. Biomolecules are indispensable tools in tissue engineering. At present, more human or animal experiments are needed to determine the exact action signal pathway of different biomolecules, the optimal concentration and combination mode of application, and the delivery mode of biomolecules. Although many kinds of stem cells with the phenotypic differentiation potential of meniscus have been found, the role of various stem cells in tissue engineering is still to be further studied, and the most dominant stem cell type or most suitable for meniscus tissue engineering is still controversial. Simultaneously, meniscus is similar to articular cartilage and intervertebral disc in terms of cell composition, extracellular matrix composition and biomechanical properties, and the repair and regeneration strategies of articular cartilage and intervertebral disc have also attracted much attention. Research progress in similar fields can learn from each other and promote each other.
Key words: meniscus injury, tissue engineering, scaffold, stem cells, biological molecules, review