Adipose Tissue-Derived Pericytes for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a promising alternative source for cartilage tissue engineering. However, MSC culture is labor-intensive, so these cells cannot be applied immediately to regenerate cartilage for clinical purposes. Risks during the ex vivo expansion of MSCs, such as infection and immunogenicity, can be a bottleneck in their use in clinical tissue engineering. As a novel stem cell source, pericytes are generally considered to be the origin of MSCs. Pericytes do not have to undergo time-consuming ex vivo expansion because they are uncultured cells. Adipose tissue is another optimal stem cell reservoir. Because adipose tissue is well vascularized, a considerable number of pericytes are located around blood vessels in this accessible and dispensable tissue, and autologous pericytes can be applied immediately for cartilage regeneration. Keywords: Pericytes, cartilage tissue engineering, CD146, adipose tissue-derived stromal vascular fraction (AT-SVF), magnetic- activated cell sorting (MACS), adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), chondrogenic progenitor cells (CPCs).