Tissue engineering of cartilage with the use of chitosan‐gelatin complex scaffolds

Abstract

Chitosan has been shown to be a promising scaffold for various applications in tissue engineering. In this study, a chitosan-gelatin complex was fabricated as a scaffold by a freezing and lyophilizing technique. Chitosan's structure and characteristics are similar to those of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and its analogs, and possesses various biological activities, whereas gelatin can serve as a substrate for cell adhesion, differentiation, and proliferation. With the use of autologous chondrocytes isolated from pig's auricular cartilage and seeded onto the chitosan-gelatin scaffold, elastic cartilages have been successfully engineered at the porcine abdomen subcutaneous tissue. After 16 weeks of implantation, the engineered elastic cartilages have acquired not only normal histological and biochemical, but also mechanical properties. The tissue sections of the engineered elastic cartilages showed that the chondrocytes were enclosed in the lacuna, similar to that of native cartilage. The presence of elastic fibers in the engineered cartilages was also demonstrated by Vehoeff's staining, and immunohistochemical staining confirmed the presence of type II collagen in the engineered cartilages. Quantitatively, the GAG in the engineered cartilages reached 90% of the concentration in native auricular cartilage. Furthermore, biomechanical analysis demonstrated that the extrinsic stiffness of the engineered cartilages reached 85% of the level in native auricular cartilage when it was harvested at 16 weeks. Thus, this study demonstrated that the chitosan-gelatin complex may serve as a suitable scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering.

Biomimetic Extracellular Matrix-Incorporated Scaffold Induces Osteogenic Gene Expression in Human Marrow Stromal Cells

“…31 Further, chitosan has been shown to be biocompatible and biodegradable and is being used in a variety of tissue engineering applications. 32,33 Additionally, chitosan also possesses antimicrobial characteristics, 34 making it an attractive candidate for in vivo applications. We have previously published that a scaffold containing a blend of type I collagen with chitosan increased the mechanical properties of the matrix and that the cellular proliferation rate could be manipulated by varying the composition of the components in a 3D coculture system.…”

Gelatin-based hydrogels for biomedical applications

“…[40] As a consequence, the inclusion of other biomaterials in alginate-based scaffolds is commonly performed to improve cell attachment. Gelatin has been shown to be capable of promoting cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation [41][42][43] which makes it an appropriate candidate for inclusion in scaffolds.…”

Chitosan-DNA/siRNA Nanoparticles for Gene Therapy

“…Chitosan microspheres for micro-encapsulation of adenoviral vectors has been achieved by ionotropic coacervation of chitosan, using bile salts as counter-anions (Lameiro et al, 2006). A 3-D scaffold composed of chitosan-gelatin complexes with entrapped DNA has been proposed as a promoter of cartilage regeneration (Xia et al, 2004). Although hydrophobic modification is not cell-specific, it can also enhance the attachment of complexes on cell surfaces and the subsequent cell uptake.…”