Differentiated and Untreated Juvenile Chondrocyte Sheets Regenerate Cartilage Similarly In Vivo

Osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of articular cartilage and the leading cause of disability, is preceded by acute cartilage injury in a significant proportion of cases. Current auto- and allograft interventions are limited by supply and variability in therapeutic efficacy, prompting interest in tissue engineering solutions. Cell sheet tissue engineering, a scaffold-free regenerative technique, has shown promise in preclinical and clinical trials across various cell types and diseases. Polydactyly-derived juvenile cartilage-derived chondrocyte (JCC) sheets from juvenile patients are a potent cell source for developing allogeneic therapies. JCC sheets have proven safe and effective in animal models and as an add-on therapy in a recent clinical cartilage repair study. However, JCC