**Cartilage Tissue Engineering: The Role of Extracellular Matrix (ECM) and Novel Strategies**

Zaira Y. García-Carvajal, David Garciadiego-Cázares, Carmen Parra-Cid, Rocío Aguilar-Gaytán, Cristina Velasquillo , Clemente Ibarra and Javier S. Castro Carmona

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/55917

**1. Introduction**

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Articular cartilage is a hyaline cartilage that consists primarily of extracellular matrix with a sparse population of cells, lacking blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and nerves. The only cell type within cartilage is the chondrocyte and has a low level of metabolic activity with little or no cell division and is the responsible for maintaining in a low-turnover state the unique composition and organization of the matrix that was determined during embryonic and postnatal development. The biological and mechanical properties of articular cartilage depend on the interactions between the chondrocytes and the matrix that maintain the tissue. Chon‐ drocytes form the macromolecular framework of the tissue matrix from three classes of molecules: collagens, proteoglycans, and non-collagenous proteins and maintain the extrac‐ ellular matrix (ECM) by low-turnover replacement of certain matrix proteins [1, 2].

Aggrecan and type II collagen are the most abundant proteins found within the ECM in the articular cartilage and they are linked together by a number of collagen-binding proteins including cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), chondroadherin and other minor collagens on their surface. Aggrecan is a large aggregating proteoglycan which is in association with hyaluronan (HA) and link protein (LP). These aggregates are responsible for the turgid and they provide the osmotic properties to resist compressive loads and retain water. Also contain a variety of small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycans (SLRPs) as decorin, biglycan, fibromodulin and lumican where they help maintain the integrity of the tissue and modulate its metabolism [3, 4].

© 2013 García-Carvajal et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
