Preparation and characterization of collagen/PLA, chitosan/PLA, and collagen/chitosan/PLA hybrid scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

In this study, three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds were developed for the repair of articular cartilage defects. Novel collagen/polylactide (PLA), chitosan/PLA, and collagen/chitosan/PLA hybrid scaffolds were fabricated by combining freeze-dried natural components and synthetic PLA mesh, where the 3D PLA mesh gives mechanical strength, and the natural polymers, collagen and/or chitosan, mimic the natural cartilage tissue environment of chondrocytes. In total, eight scaffold types were studied: four hybrid structures containing collagen and/or chitosan with PLA, and four parallel plain scaffolds with only collagen and/or chitosan. The potential of these types of scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering applications were determined by the analysis of the microstructure, water uptake, mechanical strength, and the viability and attachment of adult bovine chondrocytes to the scaffolds. The manufacturing method used was found to be applicable for the manufacturing of hybrid scaffolds with highly porous 3D structures. All the hybrid scaffolds showed a highly porous structure with open pores throughout the scaffold. Collagen was found to bind water inside the structure in all collagen-containing scaffolds better than the chitosan-containing scaffolds, and the plain collagen scaffolds had the highest water absorption. The stiffness of the scaffold was improved by the hybrid structure compared to plain scaffolds. The cell viability and attachment was good in all scaffolds, however, the collagen hybrid scaffolds showed the best penetration of cells into the scaffold. Our results show that from the studied scaffolds the collagen/PLA hybrids are the most promising scaffolds from this group for cartilage tissue engineering.

Chitosan composite scaffolds for articular cartilage defect repair: a review

“…88 Therefore, scaffolds that possesses higher porosity or a relatively larger pore size favor chondrocyte adhesion, proliferation, and nutrient exchange. Lou et al 89 added short chitosan ber into PLA to obtain hierarchical porous scaffolds.…”

The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Glycosaminoglycans in Tissue Engineering Applications

“…However, like PLA, the downside of PCL lies in its hydrophobic nature and lack of cell surface recognition sites. Together the relative positive and negative attributes of synthetic polymers means that co-polymerisation of various combinations of both synthetic and natural polymers has become an active area of research [389,391,393,394,395,396,397,398]. …”

Regenerative Medicine Approaches for Treatment of Osteoarthritis

“…Other polysaccharides that may be used include gelatin, alginate, agarose, and chitosan [ 103 ]. They are often used in formulations with synthetic biomaterials such as poly(L-lactide-co-caprolactone) (PLCL) [ 104 ] and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) [ 105 ], with varying results.…”