Background: Preliminary studies investigated advanced scaffold design and tissue engineering approaches towards restoring congruent articulating surfaces in small joints. Materials and methods: Anatomical femoral and tibial cartilage constructs, fabricated by three-dimensional fibre deposition (3DF) or compression moulding/particulate leaching (CM), were evaluated in vitro and in vivo in an autologous rabbit model. Effects of scaffold pore architecture on rabbit chondrocyte differentiation and mechanical properties were evaluated following in vitro culture and subcutaneous implantation in nude mice. After femoral and tibial osteotomy and autologous implantation of tissue-engineered constructs in rabbit knee joints, implant fixation and joint articulation were evaluated. Results: Rapid prototyping…
In this study we tested the possibility of seeding chondrocytes into poly (ethylene glycol)-terephthalate-poly (butylene terephthalate) PEOT/PBT scaffold through an intra-scaffold medium flow and the impact of this continuous medium flow on subsequent chondrocyte-scaffold culture. Eight cubic PEOT/PBT co-polymers (1 cm3) were assigned into two groups. In the semi-dynamic seeding group a continuous medium flow was created inside the scaffolds by a pump system. Around six million chondrocytes were harvested each day, suspended in 1 ml medium and delivered onto the scaffold through the perfusion for a sequential five days. Traditional chondrocytes directly seeding and static culture method was performed…
The advantage of using anatomically shaped scaffolds as compared to modeled designs was investigated and assessed in terms of cartilage formation in an artificial tracheal construct. Scaffolds were rapid prototyped with a technique named three-dimensional fiber deposition (3DF). Anatomical scaffolds were fabricated from a patient-derived computerized tomography dataset, and compared to cylindrical and toroidal tubular scaffolds. Lewis rat tracheal chondrocytes were seeded on 3DF scaffolds and cultured for 21 days. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2,5-dyphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and sulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) assays were performed to measure the relative number of cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) formed. After 3 weeks of culture, the…