Cell technologies and tissue engineering in the treatment of articular chondral defects

A review of literature considers the problem of hyaline cartilage biology and repair following by injury, and surgical repair of cartilage defects. Repair techniques based on direct cartilage substitution (mosaicplasty, osteochondral allotransplantation, minced cartilage autotransplantation in gel), bone morrow stimulation techniques (abrasion, drilling, microfracture, matrix-induced chondrogenesis) were characterized in terms of biology and clinics. Most attention was addressed to cell technology and tissue engineering.