NGF-BMSC-SF/CS composites for repairing knee joint osteochondral defects in rabbits: evaluation of the repair effect and potential underlying mechanisms

Abstract Background With the rapid growth of the ageing population, chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis have become one of the major diseases affecting the quality of life of elderly people. The main pathological manifestation of osteoarthritis is articular cartilage damage. Alleviating and repairing damaged cartilage has always been a challenge. The application of cartilage tissue engineering methods has shown promise for articular cartilage repair. Many studies have used cartilage tissue engineering methods to repair damaged cartilage and obtained good results, but these methods still cannot be used clinically. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of incorporating nerve growth factor (NGF) into a silk fibroin (SF)/chitosan (CS) scaffold containing bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on the repair of articular cartilage defects in the knees of rabbits and to explore the possible underlying mechanism involved. Materials and methods Nerve growth factor-loaded sustained-release microspheres were prepared by a double emulsion solvent evaporation method. SF/CS scaffolds were prepared by vacuum drying and chemical crosslinking. BMSCs were isolated and cultured by density gradient centrifugation and adherent culture. NGF-SF/CS-BMSC composites were prepared and implanted into articular cartilage defects in the knees of rabbits. The repair of articular cartilage was assessed by gross observation, imaging and histological staining at different time points after surgery. The repair effect was evaluated by the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) score and a modified Wakitani score. In vitro experiments were also performed to observe the effect of different concentrations of NGF on the proliferation and directional differentiation of BMSCs on the SF/CS scaffold. Results In the repair of cartilage defects in rabbit knees, NGF-SF/CS-BMSCs resulted in higher ICRS scores and lower modified Wakitani scores. The in vitro results showed that there was no significant correlation between the proliferation of BMSCs and the addition of different concentrations of NGF. Additionally, there was no significant difference in the protein and mRNA expression of COL2a1 and ACAN between the groups after the addition of different concentrations of NGF. Conclusion NGF-SF/CS-BMSCs improved the repair of articular cartilage defects in the knees of rabbits. This repair effect may be related to the early promotion of subchondral bone repair.