Autologous chondrocyte implantation has shown optimal long-term outcomes in the treatment of cartilage lesions. The challenge for a single-stage approach lies in obtaining sufficient number of cells with high viability. The answer could lie in supplementing or replacing them with allogenic chondrocytes coming from cadaveric donors. In the present work, we aimed to compare the number of viable cells isolated from cartilage of live and cadaveric donors and to determine the suitable characteristics of the best donors. A total of 65 samples from donors aged from 17 to 55 years, either women or men, were enrolled in this study (33 living vs. 32 cadaveric). The mean time of hours from death to processing samples in cadaveric donors was higher compared to live donors (64.3 ± 17.7 vs. 4.6±6.4). The number of isolated chondrocytes per gram of cartilage was higher in cadaveric donors (5.389 × 10⁶ compared to 3.067 × 10⁶ in living donors), whereas the average of cell viability was comparable in both groups (84.16% cadaveric, 87.8% alive). It is possible to obtain viable chondrocytes from cartilage harvested from cadaveric donors, reaching a similar cell number and viability to that obtained from the cartilage of living donors.

自体软骨细胞植入在软骨损伤的治疗中显示出最佳的长期效果。单阶段方法的挑战在于获得足够数量的高活力细胞。答案可能在于用来自尸体捐赠者的同种异体软骨细胞补充或替代它们。在目前的工作中，我们的目的是比较从活体和尸体捐赠者的软骨中分离出的活细胞的数量，并确定最佳捐赠者的合适特征。本研究共纳入了 65 份来自 17 岁至 55 岁捐献者的样本，无论是女性还是男性（33 例活体样本，32 例尸体样本）。尸体捐献者从死亡到处理样本的平均时间比活体捐献者更长（64.3±17.7 vs. 4.6±6.4）。尸体捐献者每克软骨中分离的软骨细胞数量较高（5.389 × 10 ⁶相比，活体捐献者为 3.067 × 10 ⁶），而两组细胞活力的平均值相当（84.16% 尸体，87.8% 活体） 。可以从尸体捐献者的软骨中获得活的软骨细胞，达到与活体捐献者的软骨相似的细胞数量和活力。