Long-term repair of porcine articular cartilage using cryopreservable, clinically compatible human embryonic stem cell-derived chondrocytes

Osteoarthritis (OA) impacts hundreds of millions of people worldwide, with those affected incurring significant physical and financial burdens. Injury to the articular surface is a major contributing risk factor for the development of OA. Current cartilage repair strategies are moderately effective at reducing pain but often replace damaged tissue with biomechanically inferior fibrocartilage. Here we describe the development, transcriptomic ontogenetic characterization and quality assessment at the single cell level, as well as the scaled manufacturing of an allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-derived articular chondrocyte formulation that exhibits long-term functional repair of porcine articular cartilage. These results define a new potential clinical paradigm for articular cartilage repair and mitigation of the associated risk of OA. Single-cell mRNA sequencing for human chondrocytes from embryonic chondroprogenitors, fetal, juvenile and adult chondrocytes along with embryonic stem cell (ESC), ESC-derived chondrocytes and human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultured on membrane using 10x Genomics.