Purpose/Aim: Knee meniscus is a wedge-shaped fibrocartilaginous tissue, playing important roles in maintaining joint stability and function. Injuries to the meniscus, particularly with the avascular inner third zone, hardly heal and frequently progress into structural breakdown, followed by the initiation of osteoarthritis. As the importance of meniscus in joint function and diseases is being recognized, the field of meniscus research is growing. Not only development, biology, and metabolism but also injury, repair, and healing of meniscus are being actively investigated. As meniscus functions as an integrated unit of a knee joint, in vivo models with various species have been the predominant method for studying meniscus pathophysiology and for testing healing/regeneration strategies. However, in vivo models for meniscus studies suffer from low reproducibility and high cost. To complement the limitations of in vivo animal models, several types of meniscus explants have been applied as highly controlled, standardized in vitro models to investigate meniscus metabolism, pathophysiology, and repair or regeneration process. This review summarizes and compares the existing meniscus explant models. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each explant model.

Conclusion: Despite few outstanding challenges, meniscus explant models have potential to serve as an effective tool for investigations of meniscus metabolism, injury, repair and healing.

目的/目的：膝关节半月板是一种楔形纤维软骨组织，在维持关节稳定性和功能方面发挥着重要作用。半月板损伤，特别是内部第三区无血管损伤，很难愈合，并且经常进展为结构破坏，随后引发骨关节炎。随着人们认识到半月板在关节功能和疾病中的重要性，半月板研究领域正在不断发展。不仅半月板的发育、生物学和新陈代谢，而且半月板的损伤、修复和愈合也正在被积极研究。由于半月板作为膝关节的一个整体单位发挥作用，各种物种的体内模型一直是研究半月板病理生理学和测试愈合/再生策略的主要方法。然而，半月板研究的体内模型存在重复性低和成本高的问题。为了补充体内动物模型的局限性，几种类型的半月板外植体已被用作高度控制的标准化体外模型，以研究半月板代谢、病理生理学以及修复或再生过程。本综述总结并比较了现有的半月板外植体模型。我们还讨论了每种外植体模型的优点和缺点。

结论：尽管存在一些突出的挑战，半月板外植体模型有潜力成为研究半月板代谢、损伤、修复和愈合的有效工具。