In vitro release and expansion of mesenchymal stem cells by a hyaluronic acid scaffold used in combination with bone marrow.

Articular cartilage injuries of the knee are difficult to treat due to the poor healing ability of cartilage and conventional treatment methods often give unsatisfactory results. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have generated interest as an alternative source of cells for cartilage tissue engineering due to their chondrogenic potential and their easy isolation from bone marrow. It has been reported that the use of scaffold in cartilage engineering acts as a support for cell adhesion, keeping the cells in the cartilage defects and therefore facilitating tissue formation, and that Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a molecule of particular interest for producing scaffold for tissue engineering.