Cellulose-Based Scaffolds: A Comparative Study for Potential Application in Articular Cartilage

Abstract

Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent disease worldwide that leads to cartilage loss. Tissue engineering, involving scaffolds, cells, and stimuli, has shown to be a promising strategy for its repair. Thus, this study aims to manufacture and characterise different scaffolds with poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with commercial cellulose (microcrystalline (McC) and methyl cellulose (MC) or cellulose from agro-industrial residues (corncob (CcC)) and at different percentages, 1%, 2%, and 3%. PCL scaffolds were used as a control. Morphologically, the produced scaffolds presented porosities within the desired for cell incorporation (57% to 65%). When submitted to mechanical tests, the incorporation of cellulose affects the compression resistance of the majority of scaffolds. Regarding tensile strength, McC2% showed the highest values. It was proven that all manufactured scaffolds suffered degradation after 7 days of testing because of enzymatic reactions. This degradation may be due to the dissolution of PCL in the organic solvent. Biological tests revealed that PCL, CcC1%, and McC3% are the best materials to combine with human dental pulp stem/stromal cells. Overall, results suggest that cellulose incorporation in PCL scaffolds promotes cellular adhesion/proliferation. Methyl cellulose scaffolds demonstrated some advantageous compressive properties (closer to native cartilaginous tissue) to proceed to further studies for application in cartilage repair.

3D printed osteochondral scaffolds: design strategies, present applications and future perspectives

“…Natural polymers are usually used in the form of hydrogels and include polysaccharides and proteins. Among them, polysaccharides include alginate ( Chen P. et al, 2018 ), chitosan ( Shoueir et al, 2021 ), hyaluronic acid ( Yontar et al, 2019 ), agarose ( Armstrong et al, 2022 ), cellulose ( Cordeiro et al, 2023 ), gellan gum ( Choi et al, 2020 ), etc. and proteins include collagen ( Marques et al, 2019 ), gelatin ( Echave et al, 2019 ), fibronectin ( Nulty et al, 2021 ), and silk fibroin ( Ni et al, 2020 ), etc.…”