Are Applied Growth Factors Able to Mimic the Positive Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cells on the Regeneration of Meniscus in the Avascular Zone?

Table 1

Scoring system for the evaluation of the quality of meniscal repair tissue.

	0	1	2	3
Defect filling	No fill	<25%	25–75%	>75%
Surface	No surface	ruptured	Fissured/fibrillated	Meniscus-like
Integration	No integration	Partial, unilateral integration	Bilateral partial or unilateral complete integration	Bilateral complete integration
Cellularity	No cells	>10 cell clusters/slide	No cell cluster/slide, cell-ECM-ratio >0,5	Meniscus-like cell-ECM-ratio
Cell morphology	No cells	<25% meniscus-like cells	25–75% meniscus-like cells	>75% meniscus-like cells
Content of proteoglycan	No staining for proteoglycan	<25%	25–75%	>75%
Content of collagen II	No staining for collagen II	<25%	25–75%	>75%
Stability	No stability	Weak	Stable in shape	Stable to pressure and pulling stress

ECM: extracellular matrix.