Meniscal Tissue Engineering Using Aligned Collagen Fibrous Scaffolds: Comparison of Different Human Cell Sources

Abstract

Hydrogel and electrospun scaffold materials support cell attachment and neotissue development and can be tuned to structurally and mechanically resemble native extracellular matrix by altering either electrospun fiber or hydrogel properties. In this study, we examined meniscus tissue generation from different human cell sources including meniscus cells derived from vascular and avascular regions, human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, synovial cells, and cells from the infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP). All cells were seeded onto aligned electrospun collagen type I scaffolds and were optionally encapsulated in a tricomponent hydrogel. Single or multilayered constructs were generated and cultivated in defined medium with selected growth factors for 2 weeks. Cell viability, cell morphology, and gene-expression profiles were monitored using confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), respectively. Multilayered constructs were examined with histology, immunohistochemistry, qPCR, and for tensile mechanical properties. For all cell types, TGFβ1 and TGFβ3 treatment increased COL1A1, COMP, Tenascin C (TNC), and Scleraxis (SCX) gene expression and deposition of collagen type I protein. IPFP cells generated meniscus-like tissues with higher meniscogenic gene expression, mechanical properties, and better cell distribution compared to other cell types studied. We show proof of concept that electrospun collagen scaffolds support neotissue formation and IPFP cells have potential for use in cell-based meniscus regeneration strategies.

Progress in Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering: A Review on Therapeutic Cells and Macromolecular Scaffolds

“…The electro‐spun collagen fibers‐based scaffolds are prepared and seeded with meniscus cells, hBMSCs, synovial cells, and the cells from the infrapatellar fat pad, respectively. All these constructs generate meniscus‐like tissues after 2 weeks of culture . In addition, resorbable collagen sponge implantation for the treatment of meniscus injury have exhibited a great progress in the clinic .…”

Structural Design, Fabrication and Evaluation of Resorbable Fiber-Based Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

“…Its widespread use is accredited to its ease of manipulation, cheap and accessible equipment needs, and its versatility. The technique can be applied to various materials, ranging from synthetic polymers such as PLA [103], PGA [104], PCL [105,106], PU [107,108], and their copolymers [109], to natural polymers such as collagen [110,111], elastin [112], gelatin [113] and chitosan [114]. Electrospun scaffolds have been applied in various tissue engineering applications, such as skin [115], bone [107,116], cartilage [113,117], tendon [118,119], ligament [118], nerve [105,120], blood vessel [121], cardiac tissue [122], and aortic valve [108].…”

Developing a Clinically Relevant Tissue Engineered Heart Valve—A Review of Current Approaches

“…While electrospinning has been widely applied to tissue engineering, collagen electrospinning alone has yet to be applied to heart valve tissue engineering . However, collagen in combination with synthetic polymers has been used to generate nanofibers scaffolds for tissue engineering . Meanwhile, extrusion‐based 3D bioprinting has been used to create collagen scaffolds for tissue engineering applications but is less common than other biomaterials such as alginate, methacrylated polymers, and synthetic hydrogels .…”