Updates on mesenchymal stem cell therapies for articular cartilage regeneration in large animal models

Timothy P Liu; Pin Ha; Crystal Y Xiao; Sang Yub Kim; Andrew R Jensen; Jeremiah Easley; Qingqiang Yao; Xinli Zhang

doi:10.3389/fcell.2022.982199

Updates on mesenchymal stem cell therapies for articular cartilage regeneration in large animal models

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Sep 6:10:982199. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.982199. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Timothy P Liu¹, Pin Ha^{1

2}, Crystal Y Xiao³, Sang Yub Kim², Andrew R Jensen¹, Jeremiah Easley⁴, Qingqiang Yao⁵, Xinli Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
² Division of Oral and Systemic Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
³ Samueli School of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁴ Preclinical Surgical Research Laboratory, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States.
⁵ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

There is an unmet need for novel and efficacious therapeutics for regenerating injured articular cartilage in progressive osteoarthritis (OA) and/or trauma. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are particularly promising for their chondrogenic differentiation, local healing environment modulation, and tissue- and organism-specific activity; however, despite early in vivo success, MSCs require further investigation in highly-translatable models prior to disseminated clinical usage. Large animal models, such as canine, porcine, ruminant, and equine models, are particularly valuable for studying allogenic and xenogenic human MSCs in a human-like osteochondral microenvironment, and thus play a critical role in identifying promising approaches for subsequent clinical investigation. In this mini-review, we focus on [1] considerations for MSC-harnessing studies in each large animal model, [2] source tissues and organisms of MSCs for large animal studies, and [3] tissue engineering strategies for optimizing MSC-based cartilage regeneration in large animal models, with a focus on research published within the last 5 years. We also highlight the dearth of standard assessments and protocols regarding several crucial aspects of MSC-harnessing cartilage regeneration in large animal models, and call for further research to maximize the translatability of future MSC findings.

Keywords: cartilage regeneration; cell implantation; intraarticular injection; large animal; mesenchymal stem cell; osteoarthritis; osteochondral defect; tissue engineering.

Publication types

Review