Characterization of Periosteum-derived Cells for the Chondrogenesis

초록

Recently, a new cell source for cartilage repair has been searched to be used in cell therapy, because the cell number obtained from normal articular cartilage has been limited. It is known that periosteum transplantation into injured cartilage has a potential to differentiate into neocartilage. Moreover, the periosteum-derived cells (PDCs) have the most important advantage such that we can get more cells from the periosteum than the articular cartilage of patients. In this study, the PDCs were isolated and characterized by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis. These cells show positive response for CD9, CD90, CD105, CD166, but it shows negative for CD45. The chondrogenesis was performed by pellet culture in a defined medium containing transforming growth factor-b3 (TGF-b3). The differentiation was confirmed by immunohistostaining and RT-PCR for the expression of type II collagen (Col. II). These results show that the characterized PDCs are the chondrogenic progenitor cells. We can use it as a cell source for healing the defected cartilage.