Research progress on the role of superficial zone cartilage-derived stem/progenitor cells in osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease causing irreversible progressive destruction of articular cartilage, and still no effective treatment at present. The development of stem cell technology has brought light to the treatment of OA, but the investigate of using exogenous stem cells to repair or regenerate cartilage faces many difficulties, as the chondroid tissue produced by exogenous stem cells is different from the normal articular cartilage in terms of biological characteristics and function. To solve this problem, researchers have proposed mobilizing endogenous stem cells of articular cartilage to promote self-healing of the defect sites. Although articular cartilage lacks intrinsic reparative ability, numerous studies have confirmed the existence of cartilagederived stem/progenitor cells (CSPCs) in the superficial zone (SPZ) of cartilage. The research progress of superficial zone cartilagederived stem/progenitor cells (SPZ-CSPCs) and their roles in OA were reviewed in present paper.