Clinical Outcome 3 Years After Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation Does Not Correlate With the Expression of a Predefined Gene Marker Set in Chondrocytes Prior to Implantation but Is Associated With Critical Signaling Pathways

Background:There is a need for tools to predict the chondrogenic potency of autologous cells for cartilage repair.Purpose:To evaluate previously proposed chondrogenic biomarkers and to identify new biomarkers in the chondrocyte transcriptome capable of predicting clinical success or failure after autologous chondrocyte implantation.Study Design:Controlled laboratory study and case-control study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:Five patients with clinical improvement after autologous chondrocyte implantation and 5 patients with graft failures 3 years after implantation were included. Surplus chondrocytes from the transplantation were frozen for each patient. Each chondrocyte sample was subsequently thawed at the same time point and cultured for 1 cell doubling, prior to RNA purification and global microarray analysis. The expression profiles of a set of predefined marker genes (ie, collagen type II α1 [COL2A1], bone morphogenic protein 2 [BMP2], fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 [FGFR3], aggrecan [ACAN], CD...