title: A comparative study of the chondrogenic potential between synthetic and natural scaffolds in anin vivobioreactor.
abstract: The clinical demand for cartilage tissue engineering is potentially large for reconstruction defects resulting from congenital deformities or degenerative disease due to limited donor sites for autologous tissue and donor site morbidities. Cartilage tissue engineering has been successfully applied to the medical field: a scaffold pre-cultured with chondrocytes was used prior to implantation in an animal model. We have developed a surgical approach in which tissues are engineered by implantation with a vascular pedicle as anin vivobioreactor in bone and adipose tissue engineering. Collagen type II, chitosan, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were four commonly applied scaffolds in cartilage tissue engineering. To expand the application of the same animal model in cartilage tissue engineering, these four scaffolds were selected and compared for their ability to generate cartilage with chondrocytes in the same model with anin vivobioreactor. Gene expression and immunohistochemistry staining methods were used to evaluate the chondrogenesis and osteogenesis of specimens. The result showed that the PLGA and PCL scaffolds exhibited better chondrogenesis than chitosan and type II collagen in thein vivobioreactor. Among these four scaffolds, the PCL scaffold presented the most significant result of chondrogenesis embedded around the vascular pedicle in the long-term culture incubation phase.
authors.affiliation: Division of Reconstructive Microsurgery, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Medical College, Chang Gung University, 5, Fu-Hsing Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan 33305, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jung-Ju
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Division of Reconstructive Microsurgery, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Medical College, Chang Gung University, 5, Fu-Hsing Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan 33305, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Rui
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Ming
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Pritzker Institute of Medical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Wishnick Hall Suite 314, 3255 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA; Research Service, Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, 5000 South 5th Avenue, Hines, IL 60141, USA.
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Brey
authors.affiliation: Division of Reconstructive Microsurgery, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Medical College, Chang Gung University, 5, Fu-Hsing Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan 33305, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Yi
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.affiliation: Division of Reconstructive Microsurgery, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung Medical College, Chang Gung University, 5, Fu-Hsing Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan 33305, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Huei
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Cheng
keywords: PCL; PLGA; cartilage; chitosan; collagen type II