Abstract:
Articular cartilage is a physiologically non-self-renewing avascular and nerveless tissue. Injury to cartilage often involves the whole joint, leading to development of degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA). Articular cartilage has been shown to contain a population of so-called cartilage-derived stem/progenitor cells (CSPCs), which are characterized by stem-cell related surface markers, clonogenicity and multilineage differentiation ability. The CSPCs are spontaneously aggregated and migrated to the damaged region to reconstruct the local microenvironment for repair. However, the origin and functions of CSPCs still remain unclear. Here we review the current status of CSPC research and discuss the possible role of cartilage stem cell may have in cartilage repair, and its therapeutic potential in OA.