Tissue engineering and cartilage

Abstract

Human articular cartilage is an avascular structure, which, when injured, poses significant hurdles to repair strategies. Not only does the defect need to be repopulated with cells, but preferentially with hyaline-like cartilage.Successful tissue engineering relies on four specific criteria: cells, growth factors, scaffolds, and the mechanical environment. Scaffolds chosen for effective tissue engineering with respect to cartilage repair can be protein based (collagen, fibrin, and gelatin), carbohydrate based (hyaluronan, agarose, alginate, PLLA/PGA, and chitosan), or formed by hydrogels. Mechanical compression, fluid-induced shear stress, and hydrostatic pressure are aspects of mechanical loading found in within the human knee joint, both during gait and at rest. Utilizing these factors may assist in stimulating the development of more robust cells for implantation.Effective tissue engineering has the potential to improve the quality of life of millions of patients and delay future medical costs related to joint arthroplasty and associated procedures.

Rising influence of synthetic biology in regenerative medicine

“…The natural or synthetic polymers used to produce the biomaterials and scaffolds act as designable and biochemical milieus [50] that elicit specific cellular functions [51] and facilitate the attachment, guidance, and differentiation of cells in vivo [52][53][54]. Being able to manipulate both the physical and chemical properties of the scaffolds allows the customisation and innovation not offered by naturally occurring materials.…”

A flow perfusion bioreactor with controlled mechanical stimulation: Application in cartilage tissue engineering and beyond

“…Moreover, agarose was used as the scaffold of choice because it supports growth and chondrogenic differentiation, and reverses dedifferentiation phenomena; that is, dedifferentiated chondrocytes (Chs) re-express the differentiated phenotype after encapsulation in agarose [112]. Furthermore, when encapsulated in agarose, bAChs maintain their phenotype and synthesize Col II and ACAN [113,114]. As shown in previous work [109], reformatted in igure 6 and table 1 to show GAG/Col ratios, results show signi icant increases in both ECM markers for cells cultured in our bioreactor.…”

Novel Bionanocellulose/κ-Carrageenan Composites for Tissue Engineering

“…κ-Car gels were removed from water every 10 min, gently drained with filter paper and weighted. The content of water in the swollen samples was calculated using Equation (2). All the measurements were performed in triplicate.…”