Predictive Estimates of Short-Term and Long-Term Results for Regenerative Rehabilitation of Local Articular Cartilage Defects in Synovial Joints

Abstract

Osteoarthritis is a serious disease of the synovial joints, accompanied by a degenerative lesion of the articular cartilage, often resulting in disability for a large number of people, since even modern methods of treatment in the late stages in most cases do not lead to positive results. Certain prospects for the development of effective strategies for the treatment of osteoarthritis are associated with the development of new technologies for the regenerative rehabilitation of articular cartilage, involving the parallel use of regenerative and rehabilitation medicine procedures. The main goal of this study is to predict in silico short-term and long-term results of the regenerative rehabilitation process for articular cartilage based on a mathematical model that considers the diffusion of cells and nutrients into the defect area when implementing cell technologies and tissue engineering structures under conditions of explant mechanical stimulation. Numerical experiments were performed in the Matlab environment using the finite element method. On the whole, their results do not contradict those previously obtained by other authors, but they are more accurate. In the experiments, an indirect assessment of the mechanical stimulation effect for the explant and the developing cartilage tissue was made, while for the first time, the effect of a physiologically justified delay in rehabilitation procedures on the course of the regenerative process was evaluated. The results obtained can be used to assess the quality of rehabilitation procedures and plan protocols for experimental studies in vivo.

Keywords

• synovial joint
• articular cartilage
• osteoarthritis
• articular stem cell implantation technology
• autologous chondrocyte implantation technology
• mechanical tissue stimulation