ArticleMaterials today. Bio2026
Stage-specific MSC spheroid fusion enables bottom-up formation of stage-defined hierarchical cartilage graft.
Article in Materials today. Bio, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Engineering articular cartilage with hierarchical architecture and effective interfacial integration remains a major challenge. Although bottom-up spheroid assembly offers a promising biofabrication strategy, how chondrogenic maturation influences spheroid fusion and boundary remodeling remains incompletely defined. Here, we investigated differentiation stage as a programmable determinant of the phenotype and assembly behavior of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived chondrogenic spheroids. Exploratory RNA-seq pathway mapping, complemented by biologically replicated RT-qPCR, indicated stage- and cell-source-associated differences in cartilage matrix and maturation-related programs in bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) and umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs). Early-stage spheroids exhibited greater fusion capacity than mature spheroids, whereas incorporation of undifferentiated MSCs promoted the integration of mature chondrogenic spheroids and reduced persistent inter-spheroid boundaries. Sequential assembly of Day-3, Day-7, and Day-14 spheroids generated hierarchical constructs with stage-associated regional differences in cartilage extracellular matrix deposition. Incorporating an undifferentiated MSC layer at the bone-facing interface further supported structural continuity with a porous bone substitute in vitro. In an exploratory porcine pilot study involving two animals, implantation of MSC-derived spheroid grafts into cartilage defects was technically feasible. At 6 months, the repair tissue exhibited variable proteoglycan staining and heterogeneous collagen type II immunoreactivity, while selected sections showed tissue apposition at the graft-host interface. The limited animal-level sample size precluded conclusions regarding repair efficacy, cartilage quality, or superiority over autologous cartilage implantation. Collectively, these findings identify differentiation stage as an intrinsic bioassembly variable and establish a stage-programmed strategy for constructing hierarchical cartilage grafts. Both BM-MSCs and UC-MSCs supported stage-defined assembly in vitro, warranting further evaluation of UC-MSCs as a potential allogeneic cell source in adequately powered studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.