Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel/chitosan scaffold hybrid for three‐dimensional stem cell culture and cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Providing a controllable and definable three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) remains a great challenge for cartilage tissue engineering. In this work, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) polymers with the degrees of polymerization of 100 and 400 (NI100 and NI400) were prepared and the polymer solutions were introduced into the preprepared chitosan porous scaffolds (CS) to form hybrids (CSNI100 and CSNI400, respectively). SEM images indicated that the PNIPAAm gel partially occupied chitosan pores while the interconnected porous structure of chitosan was preserved. MSCs were incorporated within the hybrid and cell proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation were monitored. After 7-day incubation of the cell-laden constructs in a growth medium, the cell viability in CSNI100 and CSNI400 were 54 and 108% higher than that in CS alone, respectively. Glycosaminoglycan and total collagen contents increased 2.6- and 2.5-fold after 28-day culture of cell-laden CSNI400 in the chondrogenic medium. These results suggest that the hybrid structure composed of the chitosan porous scaffold and the well-defined PNIPAAm hydrogel, in particular CSNI400, is suitable for 3D stem cell culture and cartilage tissue engineering. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2764-2774, 2016.

Injectable hydrogels and nanocomposite hydrogels for cartilage regeneration

“…Apart from forming non‐injectable and injectable scaffolds, hydrogels are utilized in cartilage repair in few different ways: as bioinks for 3 D printing, drug delivery systems, growth factors, genes, and cells carriers or support for other type of scaffolds . There are lots of studies of chondrocyte encapsulation in hydrogels .…”

“…Apart from forming non-injectable and injectable scaffolds, hydrogels are utilized in cartilage repair in few different ways: as bioinks for 3 D printing, 43 drug delivery systems, 44 growth factors, 45 genes, 46 and cells carriers 47 or support for other type of scaffolds. 48 There are lots of studies of chondrocyte encapsulation in hydrogels. [49][50][51][52] They come from the concept of matrix-associated chondrocyte implantation -third generation of ACI, which can provide stabilization of chondrocyte phenotype, thanks to utilization of 3 D matrix.…”

Release of Doxorubicin by a Folate-Grafted, Chitosan-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticle

“…CS is also increasingly used for various biomedical applications, including tissue engineering [18], wound healing [19], and antimicrobial uses [20]. Alternately, the folate (FA) receptor is a highly-overexpressed receptor on many cancer cell line surfaces [21,22].…”

Thermoresponsive Inverted Colloidal Crystal Hydrogel Scaffolds for Lymphoid Tissue Engineering

“…One potential solution to release pore entrapped hematopoietic‐lymphoid cells within ICC hydrogel scaffolds is to transiently increase the pore size by utilizing stimuli‐responsive polymers—materials which dynamically respond to changes within the microenvironment—thereby enabling spatiotemporal control over previously static 3D tissue constructs. There has been substantial progress in creating thermoresponsive hydrogels using poly( N ‐isopropyl‐acrylamide) (PNIPAM) which undergoes a reversible coil‐to‐globule conformational change at its lower critical solution temperature (LCST), resulting in a change of volume . The goal of the present study was to fabricate thermoresponsive ICC hydrogel scaffolds that undergo rapid and substantial volumetric change over a physiological temperature range.…”

“…There has been substantial progress in creating thermoresponsive hydrogels using poly(N-isopropyl-acrylamide) (PNIPAM) which undergoes a reversible coil-to-globule conformational change at its lower critical solution temperature (LCST), resulting in a change of volume. [21][22][23] The goal of the present study was to fabricate thermoresponsive ICC hydrogel scaffolds that undergo rapid and substantial volumetric change over a physiological temperature range. The biological relevance of thermoresponsive ICC scaffolds was demonstrated in the context of the trabecular bone marrow through the creation of osteospheroids-aggregates composed of mouse osteoblasts and bovine trabecular bone chips-and their subsequent coculture with Nalm-6 model hematopoietic-lymphoid cells.…”