New Trends in Articular Cartilage Repair

Dear Colleagues,

Articular cartilage in the knee, shoulder, hip, elbow, and temporomandibular joints has important roles in decreasing the friction between the joining bones and distributing mechanical load. The articular cartilage is considered to be a unique structure, due to its single-cell type (chondrocyte) with the extracellular matrix and its limited intrinsic capacity for self-repair, as it has no blood vessels. Consequently, it is difficult for resident chondrocytes to repair damaged cartilage, thus it commonly progresses to osteoarthritis/post-traumatic osteoarthritis if the injury is untreated. Although the elderly have a limited ability to repair articular cartilage, the occurrence of traumatic injury and/or early onset osteoarthritis/post-traumatic osteoarthritis is gradually increasing in adolescents and young adults. In this regard, effective and innovative therapies are required to enhance cartilage repair. Some examples of our Special Issue, New Trends in Articular Cartilage Repair, include, but are not limited to, the following:

• New surgical (invasive or minimally invasive) interventions to repair articular cartilage;
• Novel tissue regeneration using cells, materials (biomaterials and synthetic materials), and/or drugs;
• Characterization of stem/progenitor cells in the articular cartilage and cell homing strategies;
• Exosome, gene, or microRNA therapy;
• Single-/multi-omics analysis related to cartilage repair;
• New diagnostic techniques, such as biomarkers or imaging.

Dr. Dongrim Seol
Guest Editor

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• surgical intervention
• tissue engineering
• stem/progenitor cells
• cell homing
• exosome therapy
• gene therapy
• microRNA therapy
• multi-omics
• biomarker
• imaging