A thin layer of hyaline cartilage covering the synovial joint surface is characterized by low friction and high elasticity, which is highly durable against joint motion friction and is important for maintaining joint motion function. The articular cartilage is heavily used for movement and is very susceptible to injury during trauma and acute and chronic inflammation, with the literature reporting a 63% incidence of local cartilage injury in patients undergoing knee arthroscopy. The physiological mechanisms of cartilage growth and metabolism are not fully understood, but it is currently believed that articular cartilage is bloodless, lymphatic and nerve-free, contains only a single chondrocyte, has a high extracellular matrix cell ratio and lacks local progenitor cells, resulting in poor articular cartilage self-repair. Advanced articular cartilage injury will eventually lead to osteochondral exfoliation, joint exudation, and incomplete joint surfaces, causing great pain and serious sequelae such as joint swelling, pain, and impaired movement. The current treatment options for symptomatic articular cartilage injuries are basically complex, ranging from conservative treatment to restorative treatment to surface replacement treatment to eventual fusion with loss of joint function, depending on the size of the injury and the characteristics of the patient. Conservative treatment using non-invasive techniques such as: intra-articular corticosteroid injections, joint fluid and cartilage matrix supplementation, joint lavage or arthroscopic subsurface debridement, physical therapy or activity modification can provide partial relief of symptoms, but cannot produce cartilage repair resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes. Arthroplasty with surface replacement therapy has produced good clinical results, but it still has considerable limitations, such as prosthesis wear, bone loss and complications from revision, which are problematic for younger patients and those with localized injuries. Biologic cartilage repair solutions can reduce or delay late degeneration of the joint and improve the symptoms of articular cartilage injury, at least to bridge the gap between cartilage injury and joint replacement in young and middle-aged patients. Repair of local cartilage defects in symptomatic joints is now becoming a trend and a challenge for current orthopedic surgeons, with more and more surgical treatments appearing in the laboratory or in the clinic. Methods now available or under experimentation include arthroscopic bone marrow stimulation and microfracture techniques, and arthroscopic autologous osteochondral transfer (mosaic technique). Allogeneic osteochondral grafts, synthetic or biological scaffold implantation with or without cytokines, minced cartilage repair, autologous or allogeneic chondrocyte culture and replantation techniques (tissue engineering techniques), etc. Although these techniques are all options for cartilage repair, none of them are completely satisfactory and meet the “gold standard” of cartilage repair techniques. The “gold standard” of cartilage repair techniques. Therefore, to achieve the aforementioned objectives we need to complete a large amount of research from basic to clinical level to provide new and effective clinical treatment strategies for local cartilage injuries.