Cartilage Tissue Engineering with Chondrogeneic Cells Versus Artificial Joint Replacement : The Insurgence of New Technological Paradigms

Cartilage lesions of the knee, talus, ankle and hip generate chronic symptoms represented by pain associated to weight bearing, stiffness, locking and swelling of damaged joints that reduce the ability to walk, work and to carry out sports range of motion. Cartilage degeneration reduces the quality of life and has a huge impact on public health. Articular cartilage repair is a very hot topic for biomedical sciences and has evolving rapidly due to groundbreaking advances in tissue engineering driven by cell biology and biomaterials. The study here analyzes the publications and patents of cartilage tissue engineering to determine the patterns of the new therapies possibilities of cartilage repair to replace joint arthroplasties in the future. Findings, based on scientific and technological outputs, show that new clinical applications of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) and Chondrogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are fruitful approaches for cartilage regenerative medicine that should replace the artificial joint replacement in not-too-distant future. In fact, these new technological paradigms repair the cartilage with more efficacy and have been generating a revolution in clinical practice due to benefits in terms of higher quality of life