Abstract
A stem cell-based tissue-engineering approach is a promising strategy for treatment of cartilage defects. However, there are conflicting data in the feasibility of using this approach in young recipients. A young rabbit model with an average age of 7.7 months old was used to evaluate the effect of a tissue-engineering approach on the treatment of osteochondral defects. Following in vitro evaluation of proliferation and chondrogenic capacity of infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells (IPFSCs) after expansion on either tissue culture plastic (TCP) or decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM), a premature tissue construct engineered from pretreated IPFSCs was used to repair osteochondral defects in young rabbits. We found that dECM expanded IPFSCs exhibited higher proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation compared to TCP expanded cells in both pellet and tissue construct culture systems. Six weeks after creation of bilateral osteochondral defects in the femoral trochlear groove of rabbits, the Empty group (left untreated) had the best cartilage resurfacing with the highest score in Modified O’Driscoll Scale (MODS) than the other groups; however, this score had no significant difference compared to that of 15-week samples, indicating that young rabbits stop growing cartilage once they reach 9 months old. Interestingly, implantation of premature tissue constructs from both dECM and TCP groups exhibited significantly improved cartilage repair at 15 weeks compared to those at six weeks (about 9 months old), indicating that a tissue-engineering approach is able to repair adult cartilage defects. We also found that implanted pre-labeled cells in premature tissue constructs were undetectable in resurfaced cartilage at both time points. This study suggests that young rabbits (less than 9 months old) might respond differently to the classical tissue-engineering approach that is considered as a potential treatment for cartilage defects in adult rabbits.
Highlights
MATERIALS AND METHODSArticular cartilage holds a limited capacity for self-healing due to a shortage of blood supply
To determine whether decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) expansion could rejuvenate infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells (IPFSCs)’ proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation, IPFSCs were grown on dECM and tissue culture plastic (TCP) for one passage followed by chondrogenic induction in a pellet culture system
Three weeks after chondrogenic induction, under microscopy, the tissue constructs seeded with dECM expanded cells appeared thicker, with cells settled on the fibers of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) mesh, whereas those grown with TCP expanded cells were thinner, indicating
Summary
MATERIALS AND METHODSArticular cartilage holds a limited capacity for self-healing due to a shortage of blood supply. Stem cell-based tissue engineering has been validated as a promising approach to reconstitute cartilage defects (Nukavarapu and Dorcemus, 2013). Seed cells and scaffolds are two important parameters for the success of a tissue-engineering strategy. Increasing data indicate the advantages of infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP)-derived stem cells (IPFSCs) as a stem cell source due to strong proliferation capacities and multilineage differentiation potentials, for cartilage engineering and regeneration (Sun et al, 2018; Wang T. et al, 2020). Among the candidate scaffold materials, polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) is one of the most widely used biodegradable polymers, owing to its prominent advantages such as maneuverability of degradation rates and outstanding processability (Uematsu et al, 2005). In this study, IPFSCs were chosen as seed cells to grow on PLGA scaffolds
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