Hyaluronic acid, PRP/Growth factors and Stem cells in the Treatment of Osteochondral Lesions

Objective: To perform a review paper on the recent reports involving the use of hyaluronic acid, PRP/growth factors and stem cells factors in the treatment of osteochondral lesions.

Material and Method: It was performed a search on PubMed using the terms “hyaluronic acid”, “growth factors”, “platelet-rich plasma”, “stem cells”, and “tissue engineering”. References list and related articles on journals websites of selected papers were checked for potential studies that eventually could not be identified by our original search, including clinical studies databases (e.g. clinicaltrials.gov).

Results: The current research efforts seen in tissue engineering field have significantly increased the amount of new strategies to be used in orthopaedics. But, orthobiologics have also appeared as the latest tecnhology trend. These encompasses biological technologies aiming the regeneration of different musculoskeletal tissues by means of using biomaterials (e.g. hyaluronic acid), stem cells and growth factors (e.g. platelet-rich plasma). The potential symbiotic relationship between biologic therapies and surgery make both strategies suitable to be used in one single intervention. Herein, it was overviewed the recent pre-clinical and clinical studies using these two approaches (surgery and orthobiologics) in the treatment of osteochondral lesions.

Conclusion: Orthobiologics are attracting great deal of attention, but further research is needed to address the huge challenges in respect to optimal combination of tissue engineering strategies and orthobiologics in the clinics.