Impact of local delivery of allogenic chondrocytes on the biological response andhealing of the sternum bones after sternotomy

Abstract The median sternotomy is the incision of choice for many procedures where one of the major problems is the long post-operative wound healing process leading to sternal dissection and the development of infection. This leads to prolonged hospital stay and increased mortality from post-operative complications. A promising solution appears to be the use of allogeneic chondrocytes for wound treatment, whose properties for the reconstruction of cartilage structures are widely used in medicine, mainly in orthopedics. In the present study, we investigated the effect of local delivery of allogeneic chondrocytes on the biological response and healing of the sternum bone after sternotomy. We optimized the culture conditions for the isolated chondrocytes, which were then applied to the sternal incision wound. Chondrocytes in the culture were evaluated based on the presence of chondrocyte-specific genes: Sox9, aggrecan and collagen II. In turn, the histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluation was used to assess the safety of implantation. In our work, we demonstrated the possibility of obtaining a viable chondrocytes culture, which were successfully introduced into the sternal wound after sternotomy. Importantly, implantation of allogeneic chondrocyte showed no significant side effects. The obtained results open new possibilities for research on the use of allogeneic chondrocytes in the process of accelerating wound healing after central sternotomy.