| Objective To study the feasibility and effectiveness of cancellous bone BMG as a tissue engineered cartilage carrier. Methods Allogeneic BMG was prepared by sequential defatting, demineralization and denaturation. Isolated rabbit chondrocytes were seeded onto allogeneic cancellous BMG, and cell–BMG constructs were harvested after 1, 4 and 7 weeks for evaluation using hematoxylin and eosin staining for overall morphology, toluidine blue staining for extracellular matrix proteoglycans, immunohistochemical staining for collagen type II and transmission electron microscope for the examination of cellular microstructure on BMG. Results The prepared BMG was highly porous with mechanical strength adjustable by duration of demineralization and could be easily trimmed for tissue repair. At 1, 4 and 7 weeks, the percentage of newly formed cartilage tissue was 11.43 ± 2.16, 27.41 ± 4.42 and 44.89 ± 6.05, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The average gray values of type Ⅱ collagen were 153.62 ± 6.37, 135.49 ± 7.05 and 120.18 ± 5.34, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The average gray value of proteoglycan was 144.69 ± 4.05, 120.37 ± 2.85 and 101.96 ± 3.52, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion The cancellous bone BMG has good biocompatibility, adjustable mechanical strength and degradation rate, weak immunogenicity, high availability and suitable porosity. |