Suitable characteristics in the selection of human allogeneic chondrocytes donors to increase the number of viable cells for cartilage repair.

Abstract

Autologous chondrocyte implantation has shown optimal long-term outcomes in the treatment of cartilage lesions. The challenge for a single-stage approach lies in obtaining sufficient number of cells with high viability. The answer could lie in supplementing or replacing them with allogenic chondrocytes coming from cadaveric donors. In the present work, we aimed to compare the number of viable cells isolated from cartilage of live and cadaveric donors and to determine the suitable characteristics of the best donors. A total of 65 samples from donors aged from 17 to 55 years, either women or men, were enrolled in this study (33 living vs. 32 cadaveric). The mean time of hours from death to processing samples in cadaveric donors was higher compared to live donors (64.3 ± 17.7 vs. 4.6±6.4). The number of isolated chondrocytes per gram of cartilage was higher in cadaveric donors (5.389 × 10⁶ compared to 3.067 × 10⁶ in living donors), whereas the average of cell viability was comparable in both groups (84.16% cadaveric, 87.8% alive). It is possible to obtain viable chondrocytes from cartilage harvested from cadaveric donors, reaching a similar cell number and viability to that obtained from the cartilage of living donors.