[Development of meniscus biomaterial].

Meniscus is one of the most important tissues in knee joint from the biomechanical point of view. Meniscus injury is well known to cause osteoarthritis. At moment, there is a limitation of operative repair procedure especially for the meniscus injury with defect. We have been investigating the development of meniscus biomaterials. Meniscus substitute made of atelo-collagen was proved to be one of the candidates of meniscus biomaterial by our experiments using human cell culture, three-dimensional cultured tissue, and animal study.