Boosting in vitro cartilage tissue engineering through the fabrication of polycaprolactone-gelatin 3D scaffolds with specific depth-dependent fiber alignments and mechanical stimulation.

Ângela Semitela, André F Girão, Carla Fernandes, Gonçalo Ramalho, Susana C Pinto, António Completo, Paula A A P Marques

Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 2021 May

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Due to the limited self-healing ability of natural cartilage, several tissue engineering strategies have been explored to develop functional replacements. Still, most of these approaches do not attempt to recreate in vitro the anisotropic organization of its extracellular matrix, which is essential for a suitable load-bearing function. In this work, different depth-dependent alignments of polycaprolactone-gelatin electrospun fibers were assembled into three-dimensional scaffold architectures to assess variations on chondrocyte response under static, unconfined compressed and perfused culture conditions. The in vitro results confirmed that not only the 3D scaffolds specific depth-dependent fiber alignments potentiated chondrocyte proliferation and migration towards the fibrous systems, but also the mechanical stimulation protocols applied were able to enhance significantly cell metabolic activity and extracellular matrix deposition, respectively. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Ângela Semitela, André F Girão, Carla Fernandes, Gonçalo Ramalho, Susana C Pinto, António Completo, Paula A A P Marques. Boosting in vitro cartilage tissue engineering through the fabrication of polycaprolactone-gelatin 3D scaffolds with specific depth-dependent fiber alignments and mechanical stimulation. Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials. 2021 May;117:104373