Placental Stem Cells for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Preparation of functional biocartilage substitutes in vitro for repairing cartilage—a tissue with poor self-healing capacity—is an attractive therapeutic approach with the recent advances in tissue engineering. Human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs) represent a promising source of stem cells, but the application of these fetal-stage stem cells for cartilage tissue engineering, however, has only been minimally explored. Within the literature, there are diverse opinions regarding the chondrogenic differentiation capacity of PMSCs. In this chapter, we review the research findings currently in the literature to clarify the potential use of PMSCs in cartilage repair. It has been reported that PMSCs displayed limited chondrogenic differentiation capacity in traditional pellet culture or when grown on regular tissue culture polystyrene dish. Conversely, when PMSCs were incorporated into 3D scaffolds, superior neocartilage formation was observed in vitro as well as in vivo, with results superior than using bone marrow MSCs. The potential of human PMSCs as a candidate cell source for cartilage tissue engineering was further supported by several recent studies, which also confirmed the essential role of 3D scaffolds for PMSCs to promote cartilage repair.