Abstract
Due to the weak regeneration potential of cartilage, there is a high clinical incidence of articular joint disease, leading to a strong demand for cartilaginous tissue surrogates. The aim of this study was to evaluate a gelatin-based hydrogel for its suitability to support chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells. Gelatin-based hydrogels are biodegradable, show high biocompatibility, and offer possibilities to introduce functional groups and/or ligands. In order to prove their chondrogenesis-supporting potential, a hydrogel film was developed and compared with standard cell culture polystyrene regarding the differentiation behavior of human mesenchymal stem cells. Cellular basis for this study were human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which exhibit differentiation potential along the adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic lineage. The results obtained show a promotive effect of gelatin-based hydrogels on chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro and therefore encourage subsequent in vivo studies.
Highlights
Articular cartilage has only weak regeneration potential [1]
High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HR-MAS NMR) spectroscopy was applied as a straightforward technique to evaluate the crosslinking efficiency of the UV-cured hydrogels
Conventional 1 H-NMR spectroscopy does not enable the characterization of water-insoluble polymer networks due to considerable line broadening resulting from the presence of dipolar couplings and magnetic susceptibility [35,36]
Summary
Articular cartilage has only weak regeneration potential [1]. Following traumatic or degenerative cartilage injury, this leads to a strong clinical demand for cartilaginous tissue surrogates. Since current strategies of autologous chondrocyte implantation suffer from chondrocyte de-differentiation following expansion in vitro [2], stem cells in conjunction with biomaterial scaffolds are quested to both accelerate and improve cartilage tissue repair [3]. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a new approach for cartilage tissue regeneration based on the utilization of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in contact to biodegradable gelatin-based hydrogels as supporting matrix. The main constituent of the hydrogels developed is gelatin, a non-toxic, biodegradable and watersoluble protein derived from collagen, with the latter being a major component of mesenchymal tissue extracellular matrix (ECM). Gelatin retains informational signals including an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) sequence, which promotes cell adhesion, proliferation and stem cell differentiation [4]
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