Nizeet Aguilar published Comparison of Efficacy of Endogenous and Exogenous IGF-I in Stimulating Matrix Production in Neonatal and Mature Chondrocytes in Cartilage.
This study compared the efficacy of endogenous upregulation of IGF-I by gene therapy and exogenous addition of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in enhancing proteoglycan synthesis by skeletally mature and neonatal chondrocytes. Chondrocyte transplantation therapy is a common treatment for focal cartilage lesions, with both mature and neonatal chondrocytes used as a cell source. Additionally, gene therapy strategies to upregulate growth factors such as IGF-I have been proposed to augment chondrocyte transplantation therapies.
Our findings suggest that IGF-I gene therapy may be more effective with younger cell sources. Both cell types were less sensitive to exogenous IGF-I than endogenous IGF-I.
