| Summary: | Introduction: The knee menisci are fibro-cartilaginous tissue locatedbetween tibial plateau and femoral condyles in each knee joint, andhave important roles in biomechanics of the knee joint including loadbearing and shock absorption, secondary stabiliser of the joint and jointlubrication and nutrient distribution [1]. In clinics, complete healing ofmeniscus still remains as a challenge. Several tissue engineering andother regenerative medicine strategies have been attempting to repairor regenerate the meniscus tissue [2]. Cellularity is one of the importantcharacteristics that should be considered in tissue engineering andregenerative medicine strategies. The aim of this study is to investigatethe 3D cellularity of human meniscus. Materials and Methods: Six lateral meniscus tissues obtained fromhuman donors were prepared into sequential 30 lm-thick histologicalslices and stained with Giemsa. Cells were counted in an in-depth fashionas either fibrochondrocytes or as fibroblast-like cells respectivelybased on their roundish or elongated morphology (Fig. 1) in a total of432 regions using Olympus BX51 Microscope and Stereo Investigator software from MBF Bioscience. 3D cell densities were obtained by calculating the number of the cells found in unit volume in the vascular and avascular parts of the anterior, central and posterior segments of the meniscus. Results: Cellularity varies within the human meniscus (Fig. 2), specificallybetween avascular and vascular regions of the meniscus by havingthe mean values of respectively 12820 cells/mm3 and 27199 cells/mm3. In average, the abundance of fibrochondrocytes (14,705 cells/mm3) is more than two-and-a-half times as that of fibroblast-like cells(5,539 cells/mm3). Discussion and Conclusion: The clinical phenomena of very poor healingof avascular region and relatively higher healing ability of vascularregion could be explained by high cellularity difference in these regions.This work reveals the knowledge of 3D cellularity of human meniscusand provides information to be used in the development of advancedtissue engineering strategies for meniscus regeneration. Acknowledgments: The authors thank the financial support of the MultiScaleHumanproject (Contract number: MRTN-CT-2011-289897) inthe Marie Curie Actions—Initial Training Networks. Disclosures: Authors have nothing to disclose. References 1. McDermott ID, Masouros SD, Amis AA (2008) Biomechanics of the menisci of the knee. Current Orthopaedics 22 (3):193–201. 2. Pereira H, Frias AM, Oliveira JM, Espregueira-Mendes J, Reis RL (2011) Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies in meniscus lesions. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery 27 (12):1706–1719.
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