Mei Massengale, Justin L Massengale, Catherine R Benson, Ninib Barywano, Toshihiko Oki, Matthew L Steinhauser, Alissa Wang, Deepak Balani, Luke S Oh, Mark A Randolph, Thomas J Gill, Henry M Kronenberg, David T Scadden
The identity and origin of the stem/progenitor cells for adult joint cartilage repair remain unknown, impeding therapeutic development. Simulating the common therapeutic modality for cartilage repair in humans, i.e., full-thickness microfracture joint surgery, we combined the mouse full-thickness injury model with lineage tracing and identified a distinct skeletal progenitor cell type enabling long-term (beyond 7 days after injury) articular cartilage repair in vivo. Deriving from a population with active Prg4 expression in adulthood while lacking aggrecan expression, these progenitors proliferate, differentiate to express aggrecan and type II collagen, and predominate in long-term articular cartilage wounds, where they represent the principal repair progenitors in situ under native repair conditions without cellular transplantation...
September 8, 2023: JCI Insight