Sridharan BanuPriya, Lin Staphany M, Hwu Alexander T, Laflin Amy D, Detamore Michael S
Bioengineering Graduate Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America.
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Dec 31;10(12):e0141479. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141479. eCollection 2015.
There are a variety of exciting hydrogel technologies being explored for cartilage regenerative medicine. Our overall goal is to explore whether using stem cells in an aggregate form may be advantageous in these applications. 3D stem cell aggregates hold great promise as they may recapitulate the in vivo skeletal tissue condensation, a property that is not typically observed in 2D culture. We considered two different stem cell sources, human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly cells (hWJCs, currently being used in clinical trials) and rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs). The objective of the current study was to compare the influence of cell phenotype, aggregate size, and aggregate number on chondrogenic differentiation in a generic hydrogel (agarose) platform. Despite being differing cell sources, both rBMSC and hWJC aggregates were consistent in outperforming cell suspension control groups in biosynthesis and chondrogenesis. Higher cell density impacted biosynthesis favorably, and the number of aggregates positively influenced chondrogenesis. Therefore, we recommend that investigators employing hydrogels consider using cells in an aggregate form for enhanced chondrogenic performance.
目前正在探索多种用于软骨再生医学的令人兴奋的水凝胶技术。我们的总体目标是探究在这些应用中使用聚集形式的干细胞是否具有优势。三维干细胞聚集体前景广阔，因为它们可能重现体内骨骼组织凝聚过程，而这一特性在二维培养中通常不会出现。我们考虑了两种不同的干细胞来源，人脐带华通氏胶细胞（hWJCs，目前正在临床试验中使用）和大鼠骨髓间充质干细胞（rBMSCs）。本研究的目的是比较细胞表型、聚集体大小和聚集体数量对通用水凝胶（琼脂糖）平台软骨形成分化的影响。尽管细胞来源不同，但rBMSC和hWJC聚集体在生物合成和软骨形成方面均优于细胞悬液对照组。较高的细胞密度对生物合成有积极影响，聚集体数量对软骨形成有积极影响。因此，我们建议使用水凝胶的研究人员考虑使用聚集形式的细胞以增强软骨形成性能。
