Liu Donglei, Zhang Hao, Dong Xufeng, Sang Lin, Qi Min
School of Basic Medicine, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, China.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Aug 11;10:959409. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.959409. eCollection 2022.
Cartilage tissue engineering technology provides a solution for treating osteoarthritis. Based on the viscoelastic nature of articular cartilage, many viscoelastic hydrogel scaffolds have been developed for investigating the effects on chondrocyte behaviors. However, cellulose nanocrystal/collagen (CNC/COL) hydrogels have not been used as a viscoelastic microenvironment to study chondrocyte growth. Here, we prepared CNC/COL hydrogels with tunable viscoelastic properties and investigated their influences on chondrocyte behaviors. The results showed that CNC and COL within the hydrogels are bonded by hydrogen bonds. The hydrogels had a microporous structure, and the viscoelastic properties were enhanced by increasing the concentration of CNC. Moreover, enhancing the hydrogel viscoelastic properties, including stress relaxation, creep, storage modulus, and loss modulus, promoted the cell shape change, proliferation, and matrix deposition and reduced the IL-1β level. Using a principal component analysis (PCA), stress relaxation was assessed to have the strongest correlation with chondrocytes behaviors, with an authority weight value of 62.547%. More importantly, FAK and YAP were involved in the chondrocytes' response to the rapid relaxing hydrogel by immunofluorescence staining.
软骨组织工程技术为骨关节炎的治疗提供了一种解决方案。基于关节软骨的粘弹性，人们开发了许多粘弹性水凝胶支架来研究其对软骨细胞行为的影响。然而，纤维素纳米晶体/胶原蛋白（CNC/COL）水凝胶尚未被用作粘弹性微环境来研究软骨细胞生长。在此，我们制备了具有可调粘弹性的CNC/COL水凝胶，并研究了它们对软骨细胞行为的影响。结果表明，水凝胶中的CNC和COL通过氢键结合。水凝胶具有微孔结构，通过增加CNC的浓度可增强其粘弹性。此外，增强水凝胶的粘弹性，包括应力松弛、蠕变、储能模量和损耗模量，可促进细胞形态改变、增殖和基质沉积，并降低IL-1β水平。使用主成分分析（PCA）评估得出，应力松弛与软骨细胞行为的相关性最强，权威权重值为62.547%。更重要的是，通过免疫荧光染色发现，FAK和YAP参与了软骨细胞对快速松弛水凝胶的反应。
