Highly porous novel chondro-instructive bioactive glass scaffolds tailored for cartilage tissue engineering

• DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.112421
• Publication Date: 2021-09-10T06:14:20Z
• Authors: Clemens Gögele; Sven Wiltzsch; Armin Lenhart; Aurelio Civilleri; Thomas Martin Weiger; Kerstin Schäfer-E...; Bernd Minnich; Lukas Forchheimer; Markus Hornfeck; Gundula Schulze-T...
• Keywords: Aggrecan; Chondrogenesis; Type II collagen

Cartilage injuries remain challenging since the regenerative capacity of cartilage is extremely low. The aim was to design a novel type bioactive glass (BG) scaffold with suitable topology that allows formation cartilage-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) after colonization chondrogenic cells for repair. Highly porous scaffolds interconnecting pores consisting 100 % BG were manufactured using melting, milling, sintering and leaching technique. Scaffolds colonized porcine articular chondrocytes (pAC) undifferentiated human mesenchymal stromal (hMSC) up 35 days. displayed high cytocompatibility no major pH shift. Scanning electron microscopy revealed intimate pAC-scaffold interaction typical cell morphology. After 14 days MSCs formed clusters but still expressed markers. Both types showed aggrecan, SOX9 gene protein expression, proteoglycan sulfated glycosaminoglycan synthesis whole culture time. Despite II collagen expression could not anymore be detected at day 35, visualized both during culturing period, increasing in pAC declining hMSC cultures. stable, cytocompatible indicated maintenance pAC's differentiated phenotype chondro-instructive effects on hMSCs.