Lee Jung Min, Sultan Md Tipu, Kim Soon Hee, Kumar Vijay, Yeon Yeung Kyu, Lee Ok Joo, Park Chan Hum
Nano-Bio Regenerative Medical Institute, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon 200-702, Korea.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon 200-704, Korea.
Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Aug 4;18(8):1707. doi: 10.3390/ijms18081707.
Several methods for auricular cartilage engineering use tissue engineering techniques. However, an ideal method for engineering auricular cartilage has not been reported. To address this issue, we developed a strategy to engineer auricular cartilage using silk fibroin (SF) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel. We constructed different hydrogels with various ratios of SF and PVA by using salt leaching, silicone mold casting, and freeze-thawing methods. We characterized each of the hydrogels in terms of the swelling ratio, tensile strength, pore size, thermal properties, morphologies, and chemical properties. Based on the cell viability results, we found a blended hydrogel composed of 50% PVA and 50% SF (P50/S50) to be the best hydrogel among the fabricated hydrogels. An intact 3D ear-shaped auricular cartilage formed six weeks after the subcutaneous implantation of a chondrocyte-seeded 3D ear-shaped P50/S50 hydrogel in rats. We observed mature cartilage with a typical lacunar structure both in vitro and in vivo via histological analysis. This study may have potential applications in auricular tissue engineering with a human ear-shaped hydrogel.
几种用于耳软骨工程的方法采用了组织工程技术。然而，尚未有关于理想的耳软骨工程方法的报道。为解决这一问题，我们开发了一种使用丝素蛋白（SF）和聚乙烯醇（PVA）水凝胶构建耳软骨的策略。我们通过盐析、硅胶铸模和冻融法构建了具有不同SF与PVA比例的水凝胶。我们从溶胀率、拉伸强度、孔径、热性能、形态和化学性质等方面对每种水凝胶进行了表征。基于细胞活力结果，我们发现由50% PVA和50% SF组成的混合水凝胶（P50/S50）是所制备水凝胶中最佳的水凝胶。将接种了软骨细胞的三维耳状P50/S50水凝胶皮下植入大鼠六周后，形成了完整的三维耳状耳软骨。通过组织学分析，我们在体外和体内均观察到具有典型陷窝结构的成熟软骨。本研究可能在用人耳状水凝胶进行耳组织工程方面具有潜在应用。
