Objective: To invest the repair effect of articular cartilage defects by transplantation of PLGA compounded with mesenchymal stem cells modified by hIGF-1 gene.Methods: After the amplification by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) from pcDNA3.1-hIGF-1

the human insulin-like growth factor-1(hIGF-1) fragment was inserted to plasmid pIRES2-EGFP to get recombinated vector pIRES2-EGFP-hIGF-1

which followed by transfection of restructured vectors to mesenchymal stem cells and determination the expression of hIGF-1 gene.The gene-modified MSCs were compounded with PLGA and then cultured in standard condition.Then

the transplantation of graft to the defect positon of articular cartilage was performed.After the transplantation

the specimens was obtained in different time and the repair was inspected.Results: The reconstructed vector contained hIGF-1 and GFP genes was constructed successfully and high efficiency expression of hIGF-1 was detected in target cells.Compared to the control groups

the group of transplantation of graft compounded with MSCs modified hIGF-1 greatly improved the effect of articular cartilage defects.Conclusions: IGF-1 gene is one of the ideal candidate genes for the gene modification of MSCs

the seed cells of cartilage tissue engineering and the gene-modified MSCs can improved effective the repair of articular cartilage defects.