Fish cartilage: A promising source of biomaterial for biological scaffold fabrication in cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Here, engineered cartilage‐like scaffold using an extracellular matrix (ECM) from sturgeon fish cartilage provided a chondroinductive environment to stimulate cartilaginous matrix synthesis in human adipose stem cells (hASCs). Three dimensional porous and degradable fish cartilage ECM‐derived scaffold (FCS) was produced using a protocol containing chemical decellularization, enzymatic solubilization, freeze‐drying and EDC‐crosslinking treatments and the effect of different ECM concentrations (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg/ml) on prepared scaffolds was investigated through physical, mechanical and biological analysis. The histological and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed the elimination of the cell fragments and a 3‐D interconnected porous structure, respectively. Cell viability assay displayed no cytotoxic effects. The prepared porous constructs of fish cartilage ECM were seeded with hASCs for 21 days and compared to collagen (Col) and collagen‐10% hyaluronic acid (Col‐HA) scaffolds. Cell culture results evidenced that the fabricated scaffolds could provide a proper 3‐D structure to support the adhesion, proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of hASCs considering the synthesis of specific proteins of cartilage, collagen type II (Col II) and aggrecan (ACAN). Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the porous scaffold derived from fish cartilage ECM possesses an excellent potential for cartilage tissue engineering.

Cyclic freeze–thaw grinding to decellularize meniscus for fabricating porous, elastic scaffolds

“…8,53,54 Recently, porous scaffolds reconstructed from dmECM particulates have emerged as potential meniscus substitutes for meniscus tissue engineering and regeneration. 4,16,45,55 However, these scaffolds still suffer from insufficient compressive moduli, for example, Yuan et al reported a porous dmECM scaffold with a low compressive modulus of $2.5 kPa, 55 which is comparable to scaffolds made from decellularized fish cartilage (1.3-8.6 kPa depending on concentration) as reported by Khajavi et al 56 An interesting finding of the current study is the surprisingly higher compression strength and better viscoelasticity of our dmECM scaffold (Figures 4, S1-S3) in comparison to dmECM scaffolds in previous reports. 45,55 Similarly, our dmECM scaffold showed a much greater compressive modulus than dmECM and collagen hydrogels, while it was still lower than that of the native meniscus (Figure 4I).…”

“…26 Three-dimensional porous scaffolds are superior to hydrogels for cell proliferation and especially, porous scaffolds made from synthetic materials show better mechanical strength, making them attractive for replacing cartilage and meniscus tissues. 56 However, chondrocytes feasibly lose typical chondrogenic phenotype on synthetic scaffolds and surface modification are needed to maintain chondrogenic characteristics. [62][63][64] In this study, we show that the dmECM porous scaffolds induce significant redifferentiation of rabbit articular chondrocytes as evidenced by where the dmECM scaffold induces less collagen deposition compared with the untreated ECM scaffold.…”

“…In addition, cells show limited proliferation within dmECM hydrogels 26 . Three‐dimensional porous scaffolds are superior to hydrogels for cell proliferation and especially, porous scaffolds made from synthetic materials show better mechanical strength, making them attractive for replacing cartilage and meniscus tissues 56 . However, chondrocytes feasibly lose typical chondrogenic phenotype on synthetic scaffolds and surface modification are needed to maintain chondrogenic characteristics 62–64 .…”

Industrial application of fish cartilaginous tissues

“…Utilization of by-products could support further growth of the sturgeon aquaculture industry. Recently, 3D sturgeon fish cartilage scaffold had been reported, which can support the adhesion, proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose stem cells ( Khajavi et al, 2021 ).…”

Decellularized Extracellular Matrix-Based Bioinks for Tendon Regeneration in Three-Dimensional Bioprinting

“…As mentioned previously, depending on the selected tissue, decellularization protocols can differ. In other MSK tissues, such as cartilage [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ] and ligaments [ 43 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 ], similar protocols can be used with different outcomes. However, the results have been shown to change when applying the decellularization protocol with a different harvest site of the same tissue [ 56 ].…”