Abstract
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that limits mobility of the affected joint due to the degradation of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. The limited regenerative capacity of cartilage presents significant challenges when attempting to repair or reverse the effects of cartilage degradation. Tissue engineered medical products are a promising alternative to treat osteochondral degeneration due to their potential to integrate into the patient's existing tissue. The goal of this study was to create a scaffold that would induce site‐specific osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose‐derived stem cells (hASC) to generate a full osteochondral implant. Scaffolds were fabricated using 3D‐bioplotting of biodegradable polycraprolactone (PCL) with either β‐tricalcium phosphate (TCP) or decellularized bovine cartilage extracellular matrix (dECM) to drive site‐specific hASC osteogenesis and chondrogenesis, respectively. PCL‐dECM scaffolds demonstrated elevated matrix deposition and organization in scaffolds seeded with hASC as well as a reduction in collagen I gene expression. 3D‐bioplotted PCL scaffolds with 20% TCP demonstrated elevated calcium deposition, endogenous alkaline phosphatase activity, and osteopontin gene expression. Osteochondral scaffolds comprised of hASC‐seeded 3D‐bioplotted PCL‐TCP, electrospun PCL, and 3D‐bioplotted PCL‐dECM phases were evaluated and demonstrated site‐specific osteochondral tissue characteristics. This technique holds great promise as cartilage morbidity is minimized since autologous cartilage harvest is not required, tissue rejection is minimized via use of an abundant and accessible source of autologous stem cells, and biofabrication techniques allow for a precise, customizable methodology to rapidly produce the scaffold.
Highlights
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that limits mobility of the affected joint due to the degradation of articular cartilage and changes in the adjacent subchondral bone
The objective of this study was to investigate the use of a single cell source, human adipose-derived stem cells, within an integrated multimaterial, multiscale triphasic 3D scaffold created using a combination of 3D-bioplotting and electrospinning to achieve complete osteochondral tissue generation
The objective of this study was to develop a tissue engineered osteochondral construct that closely resembled the native architecture of osteochondral tissue using a single cell source of abundant and accessible human adipose-derived stem cells (hASC)
Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that limits mobility of the affected joint due to the degradation of articular cartilage and changes in the adjacent subchondral bone. Small holes are drilled into the defect to allow mesenchymal stem cells to migrate from the subchondral bone yielding new tissue formation (Yousefi, Hoque, Prasad, & Uth, 2015). This technique results in fibrocartilage formation (Gilbert, 1998), and therapeutic effects are only sustained for approximately 1 year (Yousefi et al, 2015). Mosaicplasty transfers plugs of autologous osteochondral tissue from nonweight-bearing healthy regions to repair the defect This method is limited by the amount of donor sites and is associated with donor site morbidity (Getgood, Brooks, Fortier, & Rushton, 2009). Because of the limitations with current treatment options for osteochondral injury, tissue engineering approaches have become an active area of research
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