Development of biomechanical properties and morphogenesis ofin vitro tissue engineered cartilage

✍ Scribed by Ma, P. X. ;Schloo, B. ;Mooney, D. ;Langer, R.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 973 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9304
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.820291215

✦ Synopsis

Neocartilage was engineered by culturing bovine chondrocytes on poly(glyco1ic acid) (PGA) fibrous nonwoven scaffolds. The biomechanical properties and morphologies of the PGA-chondrocyte constructs were studied over 12 weeks of in vitro culture. PGA scaffolds without cells lost their mechanical strength and structural integrity between week 2 and week 3 in culture. The thickness of the PGAchondrocyte constructs decreased by 35% during the first 3 weeks, but the thickness increased from week 3 to week 9 to a thickness 42% higher than that of the starting scaffolds, which was then maintained. Safranin 0 staining of PGAchondrocyte constructs revealed increasing proteoglycan formation over time. The compressive modules of PGAchondrocyte constructs increased with in vitvo culture time, and reached the same order of magnitude as that of normal bovine cartilage at week 9. The aggregate modulus of the PGA-chondrocyte constructs decreased by 57% over the first 2 weeks but then increased, reaching the same order of magnitude as normal bovine cartilage at week 12. The apparent permeability of the PGA-chondrocyte constructs, which was initially four orders of magnitude above that of normal cartilage, decreased between weeks 1 and 3 and thereafter remained the same order of magnitude as that measured for normal cartilage.