Chitosan‐based injectable hydrogel as a promising in situ forming scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Chitosan-beta glycerophosphate-hydroxyethyl cellulose (CH-GP-HEC) is a biocompatible and biodegradable scaffold exhibiting a sol-gel transition at 37°C. Chondrogenic factors or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be included in the CH-GP-HEC, and injected into the site of injury to fill the cartilage tissue defects with minimal invasion and pain. The possible impact of the injectable CH-GP-HEC on the viability of the encapsulated MSCs was assessed by propidium iodide-fluorescein diacetate staining. Proliferation of the human and rat MSCs was also determined by MTS assay on days 0, 7, 14 and 28 after encapsulation. To investigate the potential application of CH-GP-HEC as a drug delivery device, the in vitro release profile of insulin was quantified by QuantiPro-BCA™ protein assay. Chondrogenic differentiation capacity of the encapsulated human MSCs (hMSCs) was also determined after induction of differentiation with transforming growth factor β3. MSCs have very good survival and proliferative rates within CH-GP-HEC hydrogel during the 28-day investigation. A sustained release of insulin occurred over 8 days. The CH-GP-HEC hydrogel also provided suitable conditions for chondrogenic differentiation of the encapsulated hMSCs. In conclusion, the high potential of CH-GP-HEC as an injectable hydrogel for cartilage tissue engineering is emphasised.

Injectable hydrogels for cartilage and bone tissue engineering

“…92,93,94, 95 Recently, chitosan has become increasingly attractive as an injectable hydrogel for cartilage repair, owing to its structural similarity to cartilage glycosaminoglycan. 43,93,96 Chen et al 48 have fabricated a tough chitosan–gelatin hydrogel via an in situ precipitation method. This in situ formed hydrogel exhibits improved mechanical properties, and is biodegradable and biocompatible.…”

Development of kartogenin-conjugated chitosan–hyaluronic acid hydrogel for nucleus pulposus regeneration

“…21 Chitosan is structurally analogous to GAGs, and HA is a major component of the ECM in the NP. 10,12,14 Hydroxyl groups in HA can cross-link with amino groups in CS. CS when combined with glycerol phosphate and HA can undergo a sol-gel transition at 37°C by covalent crosslinking.…”

“…13 Another suitable candidate for cartilage and NP tissue repair is chitosan. Chitosan is structurally analogous to GAGs, 14 and is also nontoxic, water soluble, biodegradable, biocompatible and displays anti-bacterial properties. Chitosan has been investigated extensively for drug delivery systems.…”

 

“…[30] Another chitosan-β-glycerophosphate-hydroxy-ethyl cellulose (CH-GP-HEC) scaffold owns biocompatible, biodegradable and cytocompatible properties that could make a transition from sol to gel at 37 ℃. Naderi-Meshkin et al [31] found that TGF-β3 could induce the incorporated human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into chondrocytes. MSCs showed excellent survival and proliferative rates within CH-GP-HEC hydrogel during 28 d investigation, which indicate their good cytocompatibility.…”