Potential strategies for effective utilization of costal cartilage in articular cartilage injury repair

Abstract

Background: Joint diseases are one of the leading causes of global disability. Various methods of cartilage repair, including microfracture, mosaic chondroplasty, and autologous chondrocyte transplantation, have been actively studied. Currently, the use of autologous articular cartilage yields the most favorable outcomes. However, the requirement for harvesting healthy articular cartilage poses significant limitations, prompting research into alternative sources such as autologous costal cartilage. Recent studies on animal models and clinical trials have demonstrated that costal cartilage can serve as a viable alternative, offering similar mechanical properties and promising clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, challenges such as poor graft integration, uncontrolled cell differentiation, incomplete morphological and mechanical tissue matching, and donor site morbidity remain. Results: This review summarizes the current research on the use of costal cartilage for the treatment of articular surface defects and proposes various literature-based strategies to mitigate these issues and enhance the protocols for costal cartilage transplantation. Costal cartilage application in clinical settings requires the development of standardized protocols for transplantation, personalized treatment strategies, optimized cultivation protocols and long-term follow-up to enhance overall success rates. Conclusions: These improvements will enable broader application of costal cartilage, leading to consistently better clinical outcomes in the treatment of joint cartilage injuries.

Keywords

• mosaicplasty
• chondroplasty
• articular cartilage
• costal cartilage
• tissue engineering