OBJECTIVE

To engineer human cartilage with porous polycaprolactone (PCL)-Alginate Scaffold.

BACKGROUND

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a prolonged degradable polymer that has good mechanical strength. The authors fabricated PCL as an ear shaped scaffold. Alginate hydrogel was used to seed chondrocyte into the PCL porous scaffold by a gel-cell seeding technique.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

PCL Scaffolds were fabricated like human pinna by particle leaching technique. Chondrocyte was isolated from human rib cartilage and then cultured. The cultured chondrocyte were mixed with 1.2% alginate and b-FGF (basic-fibroblast growth factor) 5 ng/ml at a concentration of 25 x 10(6) cell/ml, then were seeded in porous PCL scaffold to make the constructs. The constructs were cultured in vitro for 1 week. Then they were implanted in subcutaneous plane of the back of six-female nude mice (5 weeks old). Two nude mice were sacrificed at 2, 3, and 6 months. Histological study was done (H&E, Alcian blue, collagen type II).

RESULT

Neocartilage was formed in the porous cavity of PCL scaffold. At 2 and 3 months, neocartilage were similar to very young cartilage. At 6 months, they were mature. The delayed maturation until 6 months and the highly vascularization of neocartilage in the early phase was the effect of human b-FGF The growths of neocartilage islands in porous cavity were also observed along with degradation ofPCL inter-porous septum.

CONCLUSION

This paper reports the first success of cartilage tissue engineering in Thailand.