Ovine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells : isolation, characterisation, and developmental potential for application in growth plate cartilage regeneration.

Abstract

The growth plate is a cartilaginous structure located at the proximal and distal ends of immature long bones, which contributes to longitudinal growth through the process of endochondral ossification. Cartilage has a limited ability to regenerate and in children, injury to the the growth plate can result in limb length discrepancies and angular deformity, due to formation of a bone bridge at the damaged site which disturbs structure and function of the growth plate. Current treatments of the abnormalities arising from growth plate arrest involve surgical correction once the deformities have manifested. To date, there is no biological based therapy for the repair of injured/damaged growth plate cartilage. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are self renewable mulitpotential progenitor cells with the capacity to differentiate toward the chondrogenic lineage. Since their discovery, significant interest has been generated in the potential application of these cells for cartilage regeneration. In this study, the ability of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate growth plate cartilage in a sheep model was examined.