title: Human mesenchymal stem cells induced by growth differentiation factor 5: an improved self-assembly tissue engineering method for cartilage repair.
abstract: Previous studies have shown that novel scaffold-free self-assembled constructs can be an ideal alternative for cartilage tissue engineered based on scaffolds, which has many limitations. However, many questions remain, including the choice of seeding cells and the role of growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF-5) in constructing self-assembled engineered cartilages. Moreover, whether the optimum construct is effective in human chondral defect repair is still unknown. In this study, we generated self-assembled constructs of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) using four different approaches: direct self-assembly of hMSCs with or without GDF-5, and predifferentiated hMSCs self-assembly with or without GDF-5. Histological, immunohistochemical, and biochemistry analyses indicated that the constructs generated from predifferentiated hMSCs induced by GDF-5 (Group D2) exhibited up-regulated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and type II collagen expression and contained higher amounts of GAG and total collagen than any other group. After 3-weeks of in vitro culturing of the constructs in a chondral defects explant culture system, the contructs from Group D2 were stably adhered to the surface of the cartilage matrix. Immunohistochemically, the repair tissue was positive for type II collagen, toluidine blue, and safranin O. These data demonstrated that the generation of self-assembled tissue-engineered cartilage from chondrogenically differentiated hMSCs induced by GDF-5 is a promising therapeutic strategy for cartilage repair.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shuhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yukun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Shunan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ye
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000378:metabolism; D002356:Cartilage / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000187:drug effects; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans / Q000378:metabolism; D055428:Growth Differentiation Factor 5 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000187:drug effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000954:Antigens, Surface; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans; D055428:Growth Differentiation Factor 5; D003094:Collagen