Synthetic collagen fascicles for the regeneration of tendon tissue

Abstract

The structure of an ideal scaffold for tendon regeneration must be designed to provide a mechanical, structural and chemotactic microenvironment for native cellular activity to synthesize functional (i.e. load bearing) tissue. Collagen fibre scaffolds for this application have shown some promise to date, although the microstructural control required to mimic the native tendon environment has yet to be achieved allowing for minimal control of critical in vivo properties such as degradation rate and mass transport. In this report we describe the fabrication of a novel multi-fibre collagen fascicle structure, based on type-I collagen with failure stress of 25-49 MPa, approximating the strength and structure of native tendon tissue. We demonstrate a microscopic fabrication process based on the automated assembly of type-I collagen fibres with the ability to produce a controllable fascicle-like, structural motif allowing variable numbers of fibres per fascicle. We have confirmed that the resulting post-fabrication type-I collagen structure retains the essential phase behaviour, alignment and spectral characteristics of aligned native type-I collagen. We have also shown that both ovine tendon fibroblasts and human white blood cells in whole blood readily infiltrate the matrix on a macroscopic scale and that these cells adhere to the fibre surface after seven days in culture. The study has indicated that the synthetic collagen fascicle system may be a suitable biomaterial scaffold to provide a rationally designed implantable matrix material to mediate tendon repair and regeneration.

Role of tissue engineering in tendon reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine: Current concepts, approaches and concerns

“…Generally, they can be divided into three major groups including biological (natural), synthetic and hybrid materials 12,41,42 . Biological materials such as collagen, elastin, gelatin, chitosan, albumin, alginate, fibrin and chondroitin sulphate have been shown to be effective in tendon healing 36,40,43,44 . Actually, these materials are biocompatible and biodegradable…”

“…Several materials have been used so far to produce tissue-engineered scaffolds; however, few of them have been effective in tendon tissue engineering and regenerative medicine 2,40 . Generally, they can be divided into three major groups including biological (natural), synthetic and hybrid materials 12,41,42 .…”

Release of growth factors from a reinforced collagen GAG matrix supplemented with platelet rich plasma: Influence on cultured human meniscal cells

“…1) were produced from a 1% type I collagen (Devro Medical), chondroitin-6-sulphate (Shark Cartilage, BioIberica) slurry suspension in 2 mM HCl added to a PTFE mould containing aligned 300 AE 25 mm diameter collagen fibers. 20 Fibers were produced by extruding type I collagen gel into a 20% (w/v) polyethyleneglycol bath at pH 7.4 (0.01M PBS) before air drying under tension and subsequent cross linking. The collagen-chondroitin-6-sulphate suspension and embedded collagen fibers were then subject to a freeze drying and a subsequent EDC-NHS crosslinked in large excess of 25% acetone 75% PBS solutions, the material was then extensively washed in a large excess of PBS.…”

“…13 Collagen scaffolds can be made robust enough to treat articular lesions [14][15][16] and can be formatted in a wide variety of shapes and architectures such as sponge, tubes, and fibers. [17][18][19][20] Different formats of collagen materials can be combined to produce materials with a range of mechanical properties of possible utility for treating meniscal defects where mechanical forces are high from the outset of use. 21 Collagen degradation products are metabolized within most tissues and have been investigated extensively for use.…”

Numerical simulations to determine the influence of mould design on ice-templated scaffold structures

“…Both, isotropic structures, those with equiaxed, spherical pores throughout, and anisotropic structures, which possess regions of aligned porosity, can be created via ice-templating. The properties of these scaffolds can be further tuned with chemical composition and cross-linking and have already demonstrated success in the regeneration of tendon, skin and nerve [4,[10][11][12][13] .…”