General Abstract

Cartilage degeneration is a major clinical problem nowadays. Current treatment options aim for pain management and removal of damaged tissue instead of repairing the tissue. The ultimate goal for the treatment of cartilage defects would be reconstruction of the tissue by which all the properties of the native tissue are preserved. Tissue engineering aims at restoring the tissue and thereby also the function. This makes cartilage tissue engineering very promising for the treatment of cartilage defects. In this thesis we investigated certain aspects of the repair of cartilage by the use of cell-induced