title: Tissue engineering of cartilage with porous polycarprolactone--alginate scaffold: the first report of tissue engineering in Thailand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To engineer human cartilage with porous polycaprolactone (PCL)-Alginate Scaffold.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a prolonged degradable polymer that has good mechanical strength. The authors fabricated PCL as an ear shaped scaffold. Alginate hydrogel was used to seed chondrocyte into the PCL porous scaffold by a gel-cell seeding technique.
  
  
  METHODS
  PCL Scaffolds were fabricated like human pinna by particle leaching technique. Chondrocyte was isolated from human rib cartilage and then cultured. The cultured chondrocyte were mixed with 1.2% alginate and b-FGF (basic-fibroblast growth factor) 5 ng/ml at a concentration of 25 x 10(6) cell/ml, then were seeded in porous PCL scaffold to make the constructs. The constructs were cultured in vitro for 1 week. Then they were implanted in subcutaneous plane of the back of six-female nude mice (5 weeks old). Two nude mice were sacrificed at 2, 3, and 6 months. Histological study was done (H&E, Alcian blue, collagen type II).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neocartilage was formed in the porous cavity of PCL scaffold. At 2 and 3 months, neocartilage were similar to very young cartilage. At 6 months, they were mature. The delayed maturation until 6 months and the highly vascularization of neocartilage in the early phase was the effect of human b-FGF The growths of neocartilage islands in porous cavity were also observed along with degradation ofPCL inter-porous septum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper reports the first success of cartilage tissue engineering in Thailand.
authors: Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. drtanom@yahoo.com
authors: Tanom
authors: T
authors: Bunaprasert
authors: Narawut
authors: N
authors: Thongmarongsri
authors: Voranut
authors: V
authors: Thanakit
authors: Preecha
authors: P
authors: Ruangvejvorachai
authors: Supranee
authors: S
authors: Buranapraditkul
authors: Supang
authors: S
authors: Maneesri
authors: Sorada
authors: S
authors: Kanokpanont
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002356:Cartilage / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D011091:Polyesters / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016062:Porosity; D013785:Thailand; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D011091:Polyesters; C016240:polycaprolactone