In order to improve the repair quality of damaged cartilage, we recently embarked on a new tissue engineering project: a development of a biocompatible scaffold for chondrocytes culture, i.e., a glycosaminoglycan-augmented polysaccharide scaffold. This biomaterial, augmented with glycosaminoglycan, one of the most abundant cartilage-specific macromolecules, can be seeded with chondrocytes to grow articular cartilage in the laboratory incubator. The scaffold can also be used as a delivery vehicle to transplant chondrocytes to cartilage lesions in joints. This project has been conducted in collaboration with Dr. Howard Matthew at the Wayne Sate University. Recent basic science researches have demonstrated that the chondrocytes, when properly transplanted into a biocompatible environment, has a huge potential to produce a hyaline-like cartilage in the joint.
This patent pending technology was recently presented at numerous international symposiums, such as annual meetings of Orthopaedic Research Society, International Cartilage Repair Society, Tissue Engineering Society, Biomedical Engineering Society, and Bioengineering Symposium of American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Abstract From Selected Publications
GAG-augmented polysaccharide membrane stabilizes differentiated phenotype of primary chondrocytes in monolayer
J. Biomed. Mat. Res. 49:534-541, 2000.
The quality of articular cartilage engineered using a cell-polymer construct depends, in part, on the chemical composition of the biomaterial and whether that biomaterial can support the chondrocytic phenotype. Acknowledging the supportive influence of tissue-specific matrix molecules on the chondrocytic phenotype, we have combined chondroitin sulfate-A (CSA) and chitosan, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) analog, to develop a novel biomaterial to support chondrogenesis. Chitosan is a polycationic repeating monosaccharide of b-1,4 linked glucosamine monomers with randomly located N-acetyl glucosamine units. Chitosan may be combined with the polyanionic CSA such that ionic cross-linking results in hydrogel formation. Bovine primary articular chondrocytes, when seeded onto a thin layer of CSA-chitosan, form discrete, focal adhesions to the material and maintain many characteristics of the differentiated chondrocytic phenotype including round morphology, limited mitosis, collagen type II and proteoglycan production. Our findings suggest CSA-chitosan may be well suited as a carrier-material for the transplant of autologous chondrocytes or as a scaffold for the tissue engineering of cartilage-like tissue.
See our Publications for the further details about our projects in repair and tissue engineering of articular cartilage.
Have Any Questions or Comments? Please Report Any Page Errors to the
Webmaster
Send Them to Dr. J-K Francis Suh