Abstract
Owing to the limited repair capacity of articular cartilage, it is essential to develop tissue-engineered cartilage for patients suffering from joint disease and trauma. Herein, we prepared a novel hybrid scaffold composed of methacrylated chondroitin sulfate (CSMA), poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-ε-caprolactone-acryloyl chloride (MPEG-PCL-AC, PECA was used as abbreviation for MPEG-PCL-AC) and graphene oxide (GO) and evaluated its potential application in cartilage tissue engineering. To mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) of cartilage, the scaffold had an adequate pore size, porosity, swelling ability, compression modulus and conductivity. Cartilage cells contacted with the scaffold remained viable and showed growth potential. Furthermore, CSMA/PECA/GO scaffold was biocompatible and had a favorable degradation rate. In the cartilage tissue repair of rabbit, Micro-CT and histology observation showed the group of CSMA/PECA/GO scaffold with cellular supplementation had better chondrocyte morphology, integration, continuous subchondral bone, and much thicker newly formed cartilage compared with scaffold group and control group. Our results show that the CSMA/PECA/GO hybrid porous scaffold can be applied in articular cartilage tissue engineering and may have great potential to in other types of tissue engineering applications.
Highlights
The poor regenerative and reparative ability of articular cartilage following injury or degenerative diseases makes this tissue a key target for cell-based therapy and tissue engineering[1,2]
The poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether-ε-caprolactone-acryloyl chloride (PECA) copolymer was synthesized in a similar way to our previous work[39], which proved to be a biocompatible material with low cytotoxicity
The CSMA/PECA/graphene oxide (GO) scaffold was prepared by the heat-initiated free radical method with APS as the initiator agent
Summary
The poor regenerative and reparative ability of articular cartilage following injury or degenerative diseases makes this tissue a key target for cell-based therapy and tissue engineering[1,2]. It has been previously reported that chondrocytes attached successfully and proliferated on PCL films[18] and, started to produce a cartilaginous ECM in PCL scaffolds[21] Another strategy allowed the fabrication of a combination cell-therapy implant capable of robust and durable cartilage repair in large defects[22]. In the field of cartilage tissue engineering, GO could be one promising candidate for novel scaffold as it may enhance the topographical, mechanical and electrical cues in the scaffold to provide an environment for tissue regeneration that is superior to conventional inert biomaterials Wang and his coworkers[37] incorporated GO into their composite, which produced a self-healing nanocomposite with good mechanical strength. GO holds great potential and was selected as a supplementary material for our hybrid scaffolds
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