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Tissue engineering offers an alternate approach to providing vascular graft with potential to grow similar with native tissue by seeding autologous cells into biodegradable scaffold. In this study, we developed a combining technique by layering a sheet of cells onto a porous tubular scaffold. The cell sheet prepared from co-culturing human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and endothelial cells (ECs) were able to infiltrate through porous structure of the tubular poly (lactide-co-caprolactone) (PLCL) scaffold and further proliferated on luminal wall within a week of culture. Moreover, the co-culture cell sheet within the tubular scaffold has demonstrated a faster proliferation rate than the monoculture cell sheet composed of MSCs only. We also found that the co-culture cell sheet expressed a strong angiogenic marker, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor (VEGFR), as compared with the monoculture cell sheet within 2 weeks of culture, indicating that the co-culture system could induce differentiation into endothelial cell lineage. This combined technique would provide cellularization and maturation of vascular construct in relatively short period with a strong expression of angiogenic properties.

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The PLLA-HA nanoparticle composite bone substitute developed in this study showed biocompatibility, elasticity, and operability and thus has potential as a novel bone substitute.

Recent years, various kinds of natural polymers and bioceramics has been used to develop porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Among of them, collagen guarantees good biological conditions, and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) possesses good oseteoconductivity, cellular adhesion, accelerated differentiation and mechanical property. In this study, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rMSC) were cultured in β-TCP/collagen composite scaffolds up to 28 days in order to assess the time-dependent behavior of the extracellular matrix formation and the mechanical performance of the scaffold-cell system. The cell number and ALP activity were evaluated using a spectrophotometric plate reader. Gene expression of osteogenesis was analyzed using the real-time PCR reactions. Compression tests were also conducted periodically by using a conventional testing machine to evaluate the elastic modulus. The increasing behaviors of cell number and ALP activity in the composite scaffold were much better than in the collagen scaffold. The gene expression of osteocalcin and collagen type-I in collagen/β-TCP scaffold was higher than that of the collagen scaffold. The compressive modulus also increased up to 28 days. These results clearly showed that the distribution of micro β-TCP particles is very effective to increase the elastic modulus and promote cell growth.

A layered construct was developed by combining a porous polymer sheet and a cell sheet as a tissue engineered vascular patch. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the influence of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) sheet on the tensile mechanical properties of porous poly-(l-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) sheet. The porous PLCL sheet was fabricated by the solid-liquid phase separation method and the following freeze-drying method. The MSCs sheet, prepared by the temperature-responsive dish, was then layered on the top of the PLCL sheet and cultured for 2 weeks. During the in vitro study, cellular properties such as cell infiltration, spreading and proliferation were evaluated. Tensile test of the layered construct was performed periodically to characterize the tensile mechanical behavior. The tensile properties were then correlated with the cellular properties to understand the effect of MSCs sheet on the variation of the mechanical behavior during the in vitro study. It was found that MSCs from the cell sheet were able to migrate into the PLCL sheet and actively proliferated into the porous structure then formed a new layer of MSCs on the opposite surface of the PLCL sheet. Mechanical evaluation revealed that the PLCL sheet with MSCs showed enhancement of tensile strength and strain energy density at the first week of culture which is characterized as the effect of MSCs proliferation and its infiltration into the porous structure of the PLCL sheet. New technique was presented to develop tissue engineered patch by combining MSCs sheet and porous PLCL sheet, and it is expected that the layered patch may prolong biomechanical stability when implanted in vivo.