Temporomandibular joint disc tissue engineering of synovial fibroblast-like cells cultured in the chitosan/collagen I scaffolds

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the potential of synovial fibroblast-like cells (SFBs) cultured in the chitosan/collagen I ( CS/COL- I ) scaffold for the tissue engineering of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc. Methods CS/COL-I copolymers were synthesized by the freeze-drying method. The morphological characteristics were evaluated under the scanning electronic microscopy. Synovium was harvested from rabbit TMJs. The third to fifth passage SFBs were cultured onto the CS/COL- I copolymers. MTT assay was employed to evaluate the proliferation and viability of SFBs cultured on the CS/COL- I at the day 1,3,5,7.After being induced by the cocktail application of recombinant human transforming growth factor β1(rhTGF-Bl, 10 μg/L) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, 50 μg/L) in vitro, SFBs/CS-COL- I constructs were transplanted into nude mice to evaluate the chondrogenic formation through histo-logical and immulohistochemical staining and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) at the week 4 and 8.Results The synthesized CS/COL-1 scaffold was spongy-like structure with a bulk of pores. MTT results showed that the scaffolds could improve SFBs proliferation (P < 0.05). Immulohisto-chemically and histologically, semi-quantitative analysis of the implants revealed that the contents of GAGs and collagen type Ⅲat the week 8 after transplantation were (6.900 ±0.316) and (0.0952 ±0.0248) IA/μm2 respectively and at the week 4 (3.600 ± 0.699 ) and (0.0411 ±0.0127) IA/μm2 respectively. Conclusion It is suggested that the SFBs/CS-COL- I constructs could be a candidate for TMJ disc tissue engineering. Key words: Chitosan; Synovial cell; Temporomandibular joint disc; Tissue engineering