Background: Cartilage tissue has limited capacity for regeneration
mainly due to its avascular nature. As a result, cartilage
deficiencies treatment has always been a difficult problem
for surgeons.
Objectives: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of
PRP and fat in cartilage grafting.
Methods: This work was performed as a prospective manner
on 20 young male New Zealand rabbits, each was an experimental
unit for three subcutaneous pockets for cartilage grafts
(plus PRP in first pocket and Microfat in second one while
the third one kept without any additives). Weight, volume, and
histopathology of inserted cartilage were evaluated after three
months of insertion.
Results: Revealed decrease in weight and volume of all
cartilage grafts. The findings of histopathology revealed that
the tissues of cartilages showing maximum degeneration and
losing of chondrocytes in intact cartilage without any additives
followed by cartilage injected with PRP while the tissues of
cartilages with fat showing minimum degeneration. The thickness
of the cartilage grafts injected with fat was the largest
followed by cartilage with PRP and cartilage without any additives
respectively.
Conclusion: PRP and Microfat are suitable biological
wrapping materials for grafting of the cartilage that increases
the viability of the grafts. The use of fat on cartilage graft
gives the best findings on the volume and weight measurement
as well as histopathological score followed by cartilage graft
with PRP.