摘要Objective To review the sources, cultivation and identiifcation of seed cells in cartilage tissue engineering.Methods Related basic research literature on obtaining seed cells in cartilage tissue engineering was reviewed and analyzed, while repeated research was removed.Results Chondrocytes could be induced and differentiated from animal carticular chodrocytes, mesenchymal stem cells ( MSCs ), induced pluripotent stem cells ( iPSCs ) and cartilage stem mesenchymal stem cells, which were proved to have typical chondrocyte characteristic and good biological characteristics.Conclusions These discoveries are lack of in-depth understanding on the exact mechanism that inducing factors induce differentiation of seed cells into chondrocytes. It remains to be articulated how the mechanism operates on inducing differentiation between cells and how to culture regenerated cartilage with characteristic morphology through 3-D printing and cartilage tissue engineering integration. Exploration of the underlying mechanisms will facilitate scientiifc progress for the clinical treatment of osteoarthritis and other related diseases.