Executive Summary
A pilot trial was performed to determine whether tissue engineered cartilage could be grown from equine cadavers. The future potential use for this cartilage would be in resurfacing damaged joints to treat focal cartilage injuries. Untreated, these injuries progress to degenerative arthritis, a major form of wastage within the equine industry.

Tissue was harvested from cadavers at Massey University, Palmerston North (from horses euthanased for reasons unrelated to this study). The cartilage bioposies were then transported to the Orthopaedic research laboratory at the University of Otago medical school. This tissue was digested to release the cartilage cells (chondrocytes) and new cartilage was grown using these precursors.

Analysis of this new tissue (neocartilage) demonstrated that it was the same as true joint (hyaline) cartilage.

The study was successful in demonstrating that cartilage tissue can be harvested and grown to form an engineered tissue (neocartilage) which was viable and had phenotypic markers of true joint cartilage. The engineering of the tissue can be performed at a site remote from the horse treatment facility, thus a service for providing cartilage tissue may be created.