Current State of Cartilage Tissue Engineering using Nanofibrous Scaffolds and Stem Cells

Abstract

Cartilage is an avascular, aneural, and alymphatic connective tissue with a limited capacity caused by low mitotic activity of its resident cells, chondrocytes. Natural repair of full thickness cartilage defects usually leads to the formation of fibrocartilage with lower function and mechanical force compared with the original hyaline cartilage and further deterioration can occur. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a promising strategy to repair bone and articular cartilage defects and rehabilitate joint functions by focusing on the optimal combination of cells, material scaffolds, and signaling molecules. The unique physical and topographical properties of nanofibrous structures allow them to mimic the extracellular matrix of native cartilage, making an appropriate resemblance to induce cartilage tissue regeneration and reconstruction. To improve simulation of native cartilage, the incorporation of nanofibrous scaffolds with suitable corresponsive cells could be effective. In this review article, an attempt was made to present the current state of cartilage tissue engineering using nanofibrous scaffolds and stem cells as high proliferative immune privilege cells with chondrogenic differentiation ability. The comprehensive information was retrieved by search of relevant subject headings in Medline/Pubmed and Elsevier databases.

Keywords: Cartilage; Nanofibers; Scaffolds; Stem cells; Tissue engineering.

Figure 1.

Schematic diagram of cartilage tissue engineering process using nanofibers and stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells derived from different sources are expanded ex vivo and subsequently cultured in nanofiber scaffolds to initiate differentiation in presence of growth factors and cytokines. Finally, the engineered nanofibrous tissues were implanted in vivo for cartilage tissue regeneration. MSCs: Mesenchymal Stem Cell, BMP: Bone Morphogenetic Protein, TGF-B: Transforming Growth Factor-Beta, FGF: Fibroblast Growth Factor, ITS+1: Insulin-Transferrin-Selenium+ Bovine Serum Albumin and Linoleic Acid.

Figure 2.

Culture and chondrogenic differentiation of MenSCs on nanofibrous scaffold. The image analyses of the scanning electron microscopy show that cells penetrated and adhered well on the surface of the mesh. Development of cartilage-like tissue in cultured constructs has been examined histologically with respect to the presence of proteoglycan and collagen type II (Scale bar: 100 μm). PCL: Polycaprolactone, Dif: Differentiated, 2D: Two Dimensional. (Adopted from Kazemnejad et al 2014 , with minor modification).

Figure 3

A schematic model for in vivo study on repair of osteochondral defects using constructs composed of nanofibers and stem cells. The nanofiber is considered as the chondral phase. Porous sponage is used as the osseous phase. After combining with BMMSCs, biphasic complex was utilized to repair osteochondral defects in the animal model (Adopted from Liu et al 2014, with modification).