Article
Evaluation of the use of collagen membrane in the repair of joint cartilage lesion in an animal model
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Published: | February 6, 2020 |
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Introduction: Joint cartilage injury can occur due to joint diseases, especially osteoarthritis, genetic or metabolic conditions, or as a result of trauma. The articular cartilage is a specialized tissue, formed by hyaline matrix and does not present vascularization, innervation or lymphatic network, thereby, when it is injured due to trauma or degenerative process, it presents little capacity for intrinsic regeneration. Studies related to cartilage regeneration are extremely important in the search for possible interventions that accelerate regeneration or minimize the degeneration of articular cartilage.
Objective: To evaluate the use of the equine collagen membrane in the repair of lesions in the articular cartilage of rats by histological analysis.
Methods: Six adult male Wistar rats (~420 g) were used All procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee. The animals were randomly divided into 2 groups with 3 animals each. Each group corresponds to the postoperative time of 21 days after the accomplishment of the chondral lesion of 2 mm width in the femoral intercondylar region. All rats were submitted to a chondral lesion only in one knee, and rats were submitted to the placement of the equine collagen membrane (Biocollagen®), or sterile plastic for protection. Veterinary Pentabiotic (2000 U/mL, i.m., single dose) was used as prophylactic measure and tramadol (10 mg/kg i.m., every 12 h) was injected for 3 days after surgery for analgesia. Rats from each group were euthanized with sodium thiopental (100 mg/kg i.p.) and the knees were collected for evaluation of the lesion site for histological analysis. If any tissue was observed in the lesion site the one was embedded in paraffin and sliced in microtome (20 m thickness/slice). Histological sections of the tissue were stained using Hematoxylin-Eosin and analysed in microscope (Nikon®).
Results and Conclusions: The tissue formed in the knees submitted to the placement of the equine collagen membrane (Biocollagen®) presented hyaline cartilage with typical mature chondrocytes and chondroblasts. No tissue was found in the knees of the rats in which sterile plastic was placed in the chondral lesion.
In conclusion, the equine collagen membrane (Biocollagen®) showed to be an inducer cartilage repair.