Articular cartilage has very limited intrinsic healing capacity. Although numerous attempts to repair full-thickness articular cartilage defects have been conducted, no methods have successfully regenerated long-lasting hyaline cartilage. One of the most promising procedures for cartilage repair is tissue engineering accompanied by gene therapy.
With gene therapy, genes encoding for therapeutic growth factors can be expressed at a high level in the injured site for an extended period of time. Chondrocytes have been intensively studied for cell transplantation in articular cartilage defects.
However, recent studies have shown that chondrocytes are not the only candidate for cartilage repair. Muscle-derived cells have been found capable of delivering genes and represent a good vehicle to deliver therapeutic genes to improve cartilage repair. More importantly, recent studies have suggested the presence of pluripotent stem cells in muscle-derived cells.
New techniques of cell therapy and molecular medicine for the treatment of cartilage lesions are currently undergoing clinical trials. This paper will summarize the current status of gene therapy for cartilage repair and its future application.