Advances and Prospects in Tissue-Engineered Meniscal Scaffolds for Meniscus Regeneration

Figure 4

The interaction between meniscal injury and knee osteoarthritis (OA). Knee mechanics become abnormal when a meniscus is injured, which leads to increasing stress across adjacent cartilage and subchondral bone. This stress triggers release of inflammatory cytokines, which further impair the meniscal extracellular matrix (ECM) and accelerate the vicious cycle of knee OA. OA of the knee joint also causes release of inflammatory cytokines, repeating the vicious cycle.