title: Regeneration of human-ear-shaped cartilage by co-culturing human microtia chondrocytes with BMSCs.
abstract: Previously, we had addressed the issues of shape control/maintenance of in vitro engineered human-ear-shaped cartilage. Thus, lack of applicable cell source had become a major concern that blocks clinical translation of this technology. Autologous microtia chondrocytes (MCs) and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were both promising chondrogenic cells that did not involve obvious donor site morbidity. However, limited cell availability of MCs and ectopic ossification of chondrogenically induced BMSCs in subcutaneous environment greatly restricted their applications in external ear reconstruction. The current study demonstrated that MCs possessed strong proliferation ability but accompanied with rapid loss of chondrogenic ability during passage, indicating a poor feasibility to engineer the entire ear using expanded MCs. Fortunately, the co-transplantation results of MCs and BMSCs (25% MCs and 75% BMSCs) demonstrated a strong chondroinductive ability of MCs to promote stable ectopic chondrogenesis of BMSCs in subcutaneous environment. Moreover, cell labeling demonstrated that BMSCs could transform into chondrocyte-like cells under the chondrogenic niche provided by co-cultured MCs. Most importantly, a human-ear-shaped cartilaginous tissue with delicate structure and proper elasticity was successfully constructed by seeding the mixed cells (MCs and BMSCs) into the pre-shaped biodegradable ear-scaffold followed by 12 weeks of subcutaneous implantation in nude mouse. These results may provide a promising strategy to construct stable ectopic cartilage with MCs and stem cells (BMSCs) for autologous external ear reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Aijuan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Zongqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Zheyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Xusong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenjie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Yilin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China. Electronic address: yuliu1211@163.com.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering, Shanghai, PR China; National Tissue Engineering Center of China, Shanghai, PR China. Electronic address: guangdongzhou@126.com.
authors.forename: Guangdong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020219:Chondrogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D065817:Congenital Microtia / Q000378:metabolism*; D004425:Ear Cartilage / Q000378:metabolism*; D006041:Goats; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D012038:Regeneration; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
keywords: Bone marrow stromal cells; Co-culture; Human-ear-shaped cartilage; Microtia chondrocytes; Regeneration