Construction of tissue-engineered cartilage with different biological scaffolds in vitro

Abstract

This study aims to find out which polymeric scaffolds were more appropriate for the construction of tissue engineering cartilage. Rat costal cartilage chondrocytes were cultured in vitro. The first generation of chondrocytes was used as seed cells and inoculated in chitosan/gelatin and bone matrix gelatin (BMG)/fibrin glue scaffolds. Haematoxylin and eosin staining, toluidine blue staining, safranine O, immunological detection, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations were implemented. After2 weeks, all stains of BMG/fibrin glue showed that chondrocytes were uniformly distributed on the surface and inside of the material, and collagen and type II collagen staining was positive. There were slightly more cells on chitosan/gelatin than on BMG/fibrin glue. However, the number of internal cells was small with non-uniform distribution and the staining result was not as apparent as that of BMG/fibrin glue. As the culture time lengthened, results displayed a large quantity of expression of specific collagen and typed II collagen of chondrocytes, with chitosan/gelatin showing obvious advantages over BMG/fibrin glue material. The chitosan/gelatin contributed to maintaining chondrocyte phenotype and secretion of the extracellular matrix. Tissue engineering cartilage was successfully constructed in vitro. Moreover, such tissue growth, proliferation and matrix secretion of chondrocytes on chitosan/gelatin were superior to those on BMG/fibrin glue scaffold.