Abstract
BackgroundCartilage defects pose a significant burden on medical treatment, leading to an urgent need to develop regenerative medicine approaches for cartilage repair, such as stem cell therapy. However, the direct injection of stem cells can result in insufficient delivery or inaccurate differentiation. Hence, it is necessary to choose appropriate stem cell delivery scaffolds with high biocompatibility, injectability and chondral differentiation induction ability for cartilage regeneration.MethodsIn this study, the photocrosslinked gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogel with high cell affinity and plasticity was selected and strengthened by incorporating methacrylic anhydride-modified poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM-MA) to fabricate an adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) delivery scaffold for cartilage repair. The physiochemical properties of the GelMA/PAMAM-MA hydrogel, including the internal structure, stability and mechanical properties, were tested. Then, ASCs were encapsulated into the hydrogels to determine the in vitro and in vivo chondrogenic differentiation induction abilities of the GelMA/PAMAM-MA hydrogel.ResultsCompared with the GelMA hydrogel, the GelMA/PAMAM-MA hydrogel exhibited more uniform structure, stability and mechanical properties. Moreover, on the basis of good biocompatibility, the hybrid hydrogel was proven to exert a sufficient ability to promote cartilage regeneration by in vitro three-dimensional (3D) culture of rASCs and in vivo articular cartilage defect repair.ConclusionsThe injectable photocrosslinked GelMA/PAMAM-MA hydrogel was proven to be a capable stem cell carrier for cartilage repair and provides new insight into the design strategy of stem cell delivery scaffolds.
Highlights
Cartilage defects pose a significant burden on medical treatment, leading to an urgent need to develop regenerative medicine approaches for cartilage repair, such as stem cell therapy
For the spectra of PAMAM and PAMAM-methacrylic anhydride (MA), a change in the peak at 1633/cm was observed for the typical amide bands and the peak at 2819/cm was attributed to C–H stretching
We examined the spreading of Rat adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (rASCs) in gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and GelMA/P AMAM-MA hydrogels by cytoskeleton/nuclei fluorescent staining at day 1, day 4 and day 7. rASCs encapsulated in hydrogels gradually spread as the culture time increased (Fig. 3D)
Summary
Cartilage defects pose a significant burden on medical treatment, leading to an urgent need to develop regenerative medicine approaches for cartilage repair, such as stem cell therapy. It is necessary to choose appropriate stem cell delivery scaffolds with high biocompatibility, injectability and chondral differentiation induction ability for cartilage regeneration. Liu et al Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2022) 13:26 in treatment, stem cell therapy has been developed to provide promising alternative strategies for regenerating cartilage [7, 8]. Among the various kinds of stem cells, adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) are considered highly promising in regenerative medicine because of their abundance, ready accessibility with minimally invasive procedures and anti-inflammatory properties [9,10,11].
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