Abstract
Despite the prevalence of large (>5 cm2) articular cartilage defects involving underlying bone, current tissue-engineered therapies only address small defects. Tissue-engineered, anatomically shaped, native-like implants may address the need for off-the-shelf, tissue-repairing therapies for large cartilage lesions. This study fabricated an osteochondral construct of translationally relevant geometry with robust functional properties. Scaffold-free, self-assembled neocartilage served as the chondral phase, and porous hydroxyapatite served as the osseous phase of the osteochondral constructs. Constructs in the shape and size of an ovine femoral condyle (31 × 14 mm) were assembled at day 4 (early) or day 10 (late) of neocartilage maturation. Early osteochondral assembly increased the interfacial interdigitation depth by 244%, interdigitation frequency by 438%, interfacial shear modulus by 243-fold, and ultimate interfacial shear strength by 4.9-fold, compared to late assembly. Toward the development of a bioprosthesis for the repair of cartilage lesions encompassing up to an entire condylar surface, this study generated a large, anatomically shaped osteochondral construct with robust interfacial mechanical properties and native-like neocartilage interdigitation.
Highlights
Injuries resulting in articular cartilage defects represent a substantial burden to the U.S and international healthcare systems
Osteochondral constructs were lightly compressed with static weights to encourage full contact of the chondral and osseous phases
Small control neocartilage (SCN) constructs were self-assembled from the same cell source and underwent the same chemical stimulation regimen as the large neocartilage phase of the osteochondral constructs
Summary
Injuries resulting in articular cartilage defects represent a substantial burden to the U.S and international healthcare systems. Small cartilage lesions progressively deteriorate to form large defects, causing great physical pain. While recent clinical trends aim to repair cartilage defects when they are small, many people are still afflicted with large articular cartilage lesions. In a study of cadaveric human knees with at least one cartilage lesion, ~40% of defects were characterized as large, covering. If left untreated, continue to degenerate toward osteoarthritis. 30.8 million people in the U.S, or 13.4% of the adult population, experience osteoarthritic degeneration of their articular cartilage[3]. Large defects represent a high percentage of observed articular cartilage defects, and, a main source of disability.
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