Original article
The long-term survival of cartilage homografts in man1

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Summary

  • 1.

    Nineteen fresh homografts of rib cartilage, one of ear cartilage, and one of nasal septal cartilage have been studied in human volunteers.

  • 2.

    The ability to metabolise radioactive sulphur (35S) in vitro was used as a test for viability. Nineteen of the twenty-one implants were found to be alive after intervals varying from two weeks to two years. The two specimens which failed to survive were of rib cartilage from different donors and in different hosts; other specimens in these hosts were alive up to two years, at which time the experiments were concluded.

  • 3.

    Histological examination failed to reveal any differences in the behaviour of homograft and autograft cartilage.

  • 4.

    Four specimens of maternal ear cartilage provided by Sir Harold Gillies were also examined histologically. After ten months, ten months, three and a half years, and twenty-two years in the host tissues they appeared to have survived as living grafts.

  • 5.

    Cartilage itself did not elicit a homograft reaction but in two specimens excised after two and a half months the perichondrium did. At two months the perichondrium was normal and from three months onward no perichondrium could be found.

  • 6.

    It is concluded that cartilage homografts in man remain alive for at least two years and probably do so indefinitely.

  • 7.

    The possibility of developing a “bank” of living cartilage is discussed briefly.

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Cited by (0)

1

A preliminary report of this study was published in the Transplantation Bulletin (1957, 4, 105); at that time homograft cartilage cells had been shown to be still alive fifteen months after transplantation.

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