TY - JOUR
T1 - Biofabrication of osteochondral tissue equivalents by printing topologically defined, cell-laden hydrogel scaffolds
AU - Fedorovich, Natalja E.
AU - Schuurman, Wouter
AU - Wijnberg, Hans M.
AU - Prins, Henk Jan
AU - Van Weeren, P. René
AU - Malda, Jos
AU - Alblas, Jacqueline
AU - Dhert, Wouter J.A.
PY - 2012/1/1
Y1 - 2012/1/1
N2 - Osteochondral defects are prone to induce osteoarthritic degenerative changes. Many tissue-engineering approaches that aim to generate osteochondral implants suffer from poor tissue formation and compromised integration. This illustrates the need for further improvement of heterogeneous tissue constructs. Engineering of these structures is expected to profit from strategies addressing the complexity of tissue organization and the simultaneous use of multiple cell types. Moreover, this enables the investigation of the effects of three-dimensional (3D) organization and architecture on tissue function. In the present study, we characterize the use of a 3D fiber deposition (3DF) technique for the fabrication of cell-laden, heterogeneous hydrogel constructs for potential use as osteochondral grafts. Changing fiber spacing or angle of fiber deposition yielded scaffolds of varying porosity and elastic modulus. We encapsulated and printed fluorescently labeled human chondrocytes and osteogenic progenitors in alginate hydrogel yielding scaffolds of 1×2cm with different parts for both cell types. Cell viability remained high throughout the printing process, and cells remained in their compartment of the printed scaffold for the whole culture period. Moreover, distinctive tissue formation was observed, both in vitro after 3 weeks and in vivo (6 weeks subcutaneously in immunodeficient mice), at different locations within one construct. These results demonstrate the possibility of manufacturing viable centimeter-scaled structured tissues by the 3DF technique, which could potentially be used for the repair of osteochondral defects.
AB - Osteochondral defects are prone to induce osteoarthritic degenerative changes. Many tissue-engineering approaches that aim to generate osteochondral implants suffer from poor tissue formation and compromised integration. This illustrates the need for further improvement of heterogeneous tissue constructs. Engineering of these structures is expected to profit from strategies addressing the complexity of tissue organization and the simultaneous use of multiple cell types. Moreover, this enables the investigation of the effects of three-dimensional (3D) organization and architecture on tissue function. In the present study, we characterize the use of a 3D fiber deposition (3DF) technique for the fabrication of cell-laden, heterogeneous hydrogel constructs for potential use as osteochondral grafts. Changing fiber spacing or angle of fiber deposition yielded scaffolds of varying porosity and elastic modulus. We encapsulated and printed fluorescently labeled human chondrocytes and osteogenic progenitors in alginate hydrogel yielding scaffolds of 1×2cm with different parts for both cell types. Cell viability remained high throughout the printing process, and cells remained in their compartment of the printed scaffold for the whole culture period. Moreover, distinctive tissue formation was observed, both in vitro after 3 weeks and in vivo (6 weeks subcutaneously in immunodeficient mice), at different locations within one construct. These results demonstrate the possibility of manufacturing viable centimeter-scaled structured tissues by the 3DF technique, which could potentially be used for the repair of osteochondral defects.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855396802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/ten.tec.2011.0060
DO - 10.1089/ten.tec.2011.0060
M3 - Article
C2 - 21854293
AN - SCOPUS:84855396802
VL - 18
SP - 33
EP - 44
JO - Tissue Engineering Part C. Methods
JF - Tissue Engineering Part C. Methods
SN - 1937-3384
IS - 1
ER -