Repair of articular cartilage in rabbit osteochondral defects promoted by extracorporeal shock wave therapy

摘要

This study investigated the stimulative effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on the articular cartilage regeneration in the rabbit osteochondral defect model for the first time. An osteochondral defect, 3 mm in diameter and 3 mm in depth, was drilled in the patellar groove at the distal end of each femur in 24 mature New Zealand rabbits. The right patellar defects received 500 impulses of shock waves of (Formula presented.) (at 14 kV) at 1 week after surgery and were designated as the experimental samples; the left patellar defects served as control. At 4, 8, and 12 weeks after ESWT, cartilage repair was evaluated macroscopically and histologically using a semiquantitative grading scale. The total scores of the macroscopic evaluation at 4, 8, and 12 weeks in the experimental group were superior to those in the control group (statistical significance level (Formula presented.)). As to the total scores of the histologic evaluation, the experimental group showed a tendency toward a better recovery than the control group at 4 weeks ((Formula presented.)). At 8 and 12 weeks the differences between the experimental and control groups became mild and had no significance on statistical analysis. These findings suggested that regeneration of articular cartilage defects might be promoted by ESWT, especially at the early stage. The easy and safe ESWT is potentially viable for clinical application.