The Experimental Study On The Repair Of Articular Cartilage Defects With Ha And Movement

Objective:To investigate the effect of hyaluronan and movement in reparing the knee cartilage defects of rabbits.Methods:thirty-two healthy New Zealand White Rabbits were divided as randomly into 4 groups, Full-thickness defects of 5mm in diameter,4mm depth were created over the articular surface of both the femoral condoles by operation. The four groups rabbits were treated as follow, injecting hyaluronan and fixation,injecting hyaluronan and motion, non-injecting hyaluronan and fixation,non-injecting hyaluronan and motion. The knee in experimental group was injected with 0.3ml hyaluronate at the end of the operation and then every week postoperatively. The knees of the fixation groups were immobilized by plaster. The motion groups can move their knees freely. Respectively, hyaluronan was intra-articular injected into the HA groups for 5 times weekly,7 days after the last injections. Then the animals were killed and articular cartilage of right knees was harvested and put into paraffin sections, as normal cartilage, so did other groups. Morphologic differences of each group were researched grossly and microscopically. Studied systemically on the histology of cartilaginous regeneration. At the same time, collagen typeⅡwas quantitated by confocal laser scanning microscope.Result:In injecting hyaluronan and motion group the cartilage defects were smoothly repaired by white translucent tissue, the defects boundary were hard to identified. In non-injecting hyaluronan and motion group the cartilage defects were repaired by fiber tissue, the defects boundary were hard to be identified. In injecting hyaluronan and fixation group were roughly repaired by little yellow translucent tissue, the defects boundary were clearly to be identified. In non-injecting hyaluronan and fixation group the defect was not repaired, and a dent on the surface,no obvious new cartilage formation was seen, only a small quantity of new cartilage formation could be seen along the margin of defects. According to the histological Wakitani criterions,the points of each group have significantly different (P<0.05).The mean fluorescence density of collagen type II of HA group is higher than non-HA group, so is the fixation group and motion group. There are significantly different between each group (P<0.05).The two factors of motion and HA injection have the significantly interaction function.Conclusion:It suggests that both intra-articular injection of HA and motion have effect in repairing knee cartilage defection. Using them together is better than using single one.