Coculture of hWJMSCs and pACs in Oriented Scaffold Enhances Hyaline Cartilage Regeneration In Vitro

Yu Zhang,Mingjie Wang,Xu Li,Xiang Sui,Weimin Guo,Mingxue Chen,Xueliang Zhang,Quanyi Guo,Chunxiang Hao,Shuyun Liu,Yu Wang,Shibi Lu,Jiang Peng,Zehao Wang

doi:10.1155/2019/5130152

Abstract

Seed cells of articular cartilage tissue engineering face many obstacles in their application because of the dedifferentiation of chondrocytes or unstable chondrogenic differentiation status of pluripotent stem cells. To overcome mentioned dilemmas, a simulation of the articular cartilage microenvironment was constructed by primary articular cartilage cells (pACs) and acellular cartilage extracellular matrix- (ACECM-) oriented scaffold cocultured with human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hWJMSCs) in vitro. The coculture groups showed more affluent cartilage special matrix ingredients including collagen II and aggrecan based on the results of histological staining and western blotting and cut down as many pACs as possible. The RT-PCR and cell viability experiments also demonstrated that hWJMSCs were successfully induced to differentiate into chondrocytes when cultured in the simulated cartilage microenvironment, as confirmed by the significant upregulation of collagen II and aggrecan, while the cell proliferation activity of pACs was significantly improved by cell-cell interactions. Therefore, compared with monoculture and chondrogenic induction of inducers, coculture providing a simulated native articular microenvironment was a potential and temperate way to regulate the biological behaviors of pACs and hWJMSCs to regenerate the hyaline articular cartilage.

Highlights

The articular cartilage plays an important role in load distribution, reducing friction, and pain-free movement [1]
Microscopic analysis showed that hWJMSCs exhibited a predominantly fibroblast-like morphology with spindle cells, suggesting that the cells displayed a typical mesenchymal morphology (Figure 1(a)), while the Primary articular cartilage cells (pACs) presented polyphology or round-like morphology and some of them were in the phase of division
The engineered articular cartilage was successfully constructed using hWJMSCs cocultured with pACs in an acellular cartilage extracellular matrix- (ACECM-)oriented scaffold

Summary

Introduction

The articular cartilage plays an important role in load distribution, reducing friction, and pain-free movement [1]. After cultivation in the presence of chondrogenic inducers in vitro for a certain amount of time, MSCs were observed to differentiate into chondrocytes; Stem Cells International cartilage-specific genes and proteins were upregulated, such as collagen II and aggrecan. Primary articular cartilage cells (pACs) have to be isolated from the articular cartilage tissue and cultured in vitro to obtain sufficient quantities to construct tissue engineering cartilage Brittberg and his group first published ACI technology to repair deep cartilage defects in the femorotibial articular surface of the knee joint in 23 patients and believed that cultured autologous chondrocytes can be used in clinic [13]. Passage-dependent dedifferentiation of chondrocytes was first published by Dell’Accio et al who found that the finite capacity to form stable cartilage in vivo using a nude mouse model would be lost through passaging [17]. This was an essential reason behind the inferior cartilage repair in vivo [18]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion