Abstract:Tissue engineering approach for cartilage regeneration has clinically been conducted using chondrocytes with collagen gel scaffold. However, such engineered cartilage tissue cannot be implanted into the load-bearing part of joint surface because of poor mechanical properties that are much lower than those of natural cartilage tissue. The aim of this research project is, therefore, to develop a novel engineered cartilage tissue that has mechanical properties comparable with natural articular tissue. As a new novel scaffold for cartilage regeneration, collagen gel/sponge composite scaffold was developed by placing sponge structure in gel phase. It was found that the composite scaffold has much better compressive mechanical properties than pure collagen gel. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were also cultured with a standard cell growth medium, and nicely proliferated in the scaffold. Next, combined culture condition such as the condition: chondrogenic differentiation and growth mediums, were examined. It was found that conditions can effectively activate the proliferation and differentiation of MSCs, resulting in increase of compressive property. As the next step, Improvement of the structure of the composite scaffold were examined. Many chondrocyte-like spherical cells and many collagen fibrils were observed on the surface of the samples.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.