Introduction

Degenerative meniscal tears are the most common meniscal lesions, representing huge clinical and socio-economic burdens. Their role in knee osteoarthritis (OA) onset and progression is well established and demonstrated by several retrospective studies. Effective preventive measures and non-surgical treatments for degenerative meniscal lesions are still lacking, also because of the lack of specific and accurate animal models in which test them. Thus, we aim to develop and validate an accurate animal model of meniscus degeneration.

Aims: The aim of the study is to evaluate the clinical application in veterinary orthopedics of the bone stromal cells loaded on three-dimensional resorbable osteogenic scaffolds.

Methods: On the basis of the results obtained after an experimental study on 54 adult sheep (data in process), the Authors have carried out a clinical study on 9 dogs of different breed, age,sized with the different orthopaedic lesion associated to large bone defects (from 2 to 4,8 cm) (bone cyst of glenoid rime, non-union of the tibia and of the femur, osteosarcoma of the radio and the proximal humerus, lenghtening of the radius, bone large defect of the distal radius).With the local anesthesia performed with 2% lidocaine the marrow samples were collected from the iliac crest two hours before the surgery. The bone marrow nucleated cells were then isolated from the bone marrow by gradient centrifugation and loaded on the scaffold on biomaterial, which size and shape was defined before performing the surgery. The cells separated were added with some drops of thrombin. The material used for the study was Osteostim Skelite resorbable bone graft substitute (manufactured by Millenium Biologic Inc-.Canada) which chemical composition and size facilitates the ingrowth of bone.

X-ray exams were performed immediately after the surgery. Clinical, ultrasound and x-ray exams were performed after 20 days and then every month.

Results: 7 of 9 treated dogs have shown very good clinical and x-ray results.

Conclusions: One of the objective of the study was to use the fresh bone stromal cells (BMSCs) in clinical applications in large bone defects in the dog. The advantages of using the cells are: they don’t need to be expanded in vitro, they preserve their osteogenic potential to form bone and promote the proper integration of the implant with bone and lastly, the technique is easier and the costs are lower. We use a fully resorbable biomaterial with BMSCs to obtain a complete substitution of large bone defects since the final goal is the complete substitution of the biomaterial scaffold with new formed bone. Persistency of biomaterial, in fact, limits the complete integration of the two (old and new) interfaces and may represent a weak spot in functionality when tensions and loads are fully applied to the bone, in spite of a satisfactory surgical recovery.