@article {18328,
	title = {The Human Knee Meniscus: Quantification of 3D Cell Density},
	journal = { General Assembly of Marie Curie Alumni Association, Poster Session},
	year = {2015},
	month = {2015-02-07 00:00:00},
	address = {Porto, Portugal},
	abstract = {<p>The knee meniscus has important functions in the knee articulation. Meniscus lesions are seen very frequently in the orthopedics. Healing of meniscus is not yet fully achieved in the clinics, and unfulfillment of the functions of meniscus leads degenerative changes in the knee joint. Tissue engineering strategies have been developed with the goal of adequate regeneration of meniscus. Cellularity is among the important parameters in tissue engineering. In this work, the 3D cellularity of the human knee meniscus is quantified by histomorphometry in a segmental and regional manner. Human lateral meniscus tissues (n=6) were prepared into Giemsa-stained 30 {\textmu}m-thick histological slices. The cells were counted in an in-depth fashion with a microscope. Based on the cells{\textquoteright} roundish or elongated morphology, cells were identified as fibrochondrocytes or as fibroblast-like cells, respectively. From the number of the cells found in unit volume, 3D cell densities were calculated. The cell densities change across the human meniscus. There was an apparent difference between vascular and avascular regions that have the cell density of 12820 cells/mm3 and 27199 cells/mm3, respectively. The density of fibrochondrocytes, which was 14,705 cells/mm3, was more than the double of fibroblast-like cells that was 5,539 cells/mm3. This study provides information about segmental and regional 3D cellularity of the human meniscus with regard to the cell population type, which important for the design of a tissue engineering strategy. <br>Acknowledgments: The authors thank the financial support of the MultiScaleHuman project (Contract number: MRTN-CT-2011-289897) in the Marie Curie Actions{\textemdash}Initial Training Networks.</p>},
	keywords = {Cellularity, meniscus},
	author = {Cengiz, I. F. and Pereira, H. and Pego, J. M. and Sousa, N. and Espregueira-Mendes, J. D. and Oliveira, J. M. and Reis, R. L.}
}
