Leong Natalie L, Kabir Nima, Arshi Armin, Nazemi Azadeh, Wu Ben M, McAllister David R, Petrigliano Frank A
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California Los Angeles;
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California Los Angeles.
J Vis Exp. 2015 Mar 26(97):52797. doi: 10.3791/52797.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is a common ligamentous injury that often requires surgery because the ACL does not heal well without intervention. Current treatment strategies include ligament reconstruction with either autograft or allograft, which each have their associated limitations. Thus, there is interest in designing a tissue-engineered graft for use in ACL reconstruction. We describe the fabrication of an electrospun polymer graft for use in ACL tissue engineering. This polycaprolactone graft is biocompatible, biodegradable, porous, and is comprised of aligned fibers. Because an animal model is necessary to evaluate such a graft, this paper describes an intra-articular athymic rat model of ACL reconstruction that can be used to evaluate engineered grafts, including those seeded with xenogeneic cells. Representative histology and biomechanical testing results at 16 weeks postoperatively are presented, with grafts tested immediately post-implantation and contralateral native ACLs serving as controls. The present study provides a reproducible animal model with which to evaluate tissue engineered ACL grafts, and demonstrates the potential of a regenerative medicine approach to treatment of ACL rupture.
前交叉韧带（ACL）断裂是一种常见的韧带损伤，通常需要进行手术，因为在没有干预的情况下，ACL无法很好地愈合。目前的治疗策略包括使用自体移植物或同种异体移植物进行韧带重建，但每种方法都有其相关的局限性。因此，人们对设计用于ACL重建的组织工程移植物很感兴趣。我们描述了一种用于ACL组织工程的电纺聚合物移植物的制备方法。这种聚己内酯移植物具有生物相容性、可生物降解性、多孔性，并且由排列整齐的纤维组成。由于需要动物模型来评估这样的移植物，本文描述了一种用于ACL重建的关节内无胸腺大鼠模型，该模型可用于评估工程化移植物，包括那些接种了异种细胞的移植物。本文展示了术后16周的代表性组织学和生物力学测试结果，移植物在植入后立即进行测试，对侧天然ACL作为对照。本研究提供了一种可重复的动物模型，用于评估组织工程化ACL移植物，并证明了再生医学方法治疗ACL断裂的潜力。
