Shimomura, KazunoriAndo, WataruFujie, HiromichiHart, David AYoshikawa, HidekiNakamura, Norimasa2018-11-072018-11-072018-01-05Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics. 2018 Jan 05;5(1):2http://hdl.handle.net/1880/109131https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/44807Abstract Articular cartilage does not heal spontaneously due to its limited healing capacity, and thus effective treatments for cartilage injuries has remained challenging. Since the first report by Brittberg et al. in 1994, autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) has been introduced into the clinic. Recently, as an alternative for chondrocyte-based therapy, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has received considerable research attention because of the relative ease in handling for tissue harvest, and subsequent cell expansion and differentiation. In this review, we discuss the latest developments regarding stem cell-based therapies for cartilage repair, with special focus on recent scaffold-free approaches.Journal Article2018-11-07enThe Author(s).https://doi.org/10.1186/s40634-017-0118-0