3B's Research Group, I3B's - Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics of University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, AvePark, 4805-017 Barco, Guimarães, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga, Guimarães, Portugal.
Centre for Translational Bone, Joint- and Soft Tissue Research, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Jun 30;241:124510. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124510. Epub 2023 Apr 19.
Cartilage repair after a trauma or a degenerative disease like osteoarthritis (OA) continues to be a big challenge in current medicine due to the limited self-regenerative capacity of the articular cartilage tissues. To overcome the current limitations, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) and adjacent areas have focused their efforts on new therapeutical procedures and materials capable of restoring normal tissue functionalities through polymeric scaffolding and stem cell engineering approaches. For this, the sustainable exploration of marine origin materials has emerged in the last years as a natural alternative to mammal sources, benefiting from their biological properties (e.g., biocompatibility, biodegradability, no toxicity, among others) for the development of several types of scaffolds. In this study, marine collagen(jCOL)-chitosan(sCHT)-fucoidan(aFUC)/chondroitin sulfate(aCS) were cryo-processed (-20 °C, -80 °C, and -196 °C) and a chemical-free crosslinking approach was explored to establish cohesive and stable cryogel materials. The cryogels were intensively characterized to assess their oscillatory behavior, thermal structural stability, thixotropic properties (around 45 % for the best formulations), injectability, and surface structural organization. Additionally, the cryogels demonstrate an interesting microenvironment in in vitro studies using human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), supporting their viability and proliferation. In both physic-chemical and in vitro studies, the systems that contain fucoidan in their formulations, i.e., C (jCOL, sCHT, aFUC) and C (jCOL, sCHT, aFUC, aCS), submitted at -80 °C, are those that demonstrated most promising results for future application in articular cartilage tissues.
由于关节软骨组织的自我再生能力有限，创伤或退行性疾病（如骨关节炎（OA））后的软骨修复仍然是当前医学的一大挑战。为了克服当前的局限性，组织工程和再生医学（TERM）及相邻领域专注于新的治疗程序和材料，这些材料能够通过聚合支架和干细胞工程方法恢复正常组织功能。为此，近年来，可持续开发海洋来源的材料已成为哺乳动物来源的天然替代品，利用其生物特性（例如，生物相容性、可生物降解性、无毒等）开发了多种类型的支架。在这项研究中，海洋胶原蛋白（jCOL）-壳聚糖（sCHT）-岩藻聚糖（aFUC）/硫酸软骨素（aCS）经冷冻处理（-20°C、-80°C 和-196°C），并探索了一种无化学交联方法，以建立具有内聚性和稳定性的冷冻凝胶材料。对冷冻凝胶进行了深入的特性评估，以评估其振荡行为、热结构稳定性、触变性能（最佳配方约为 45%）、可注射性和表面结构组织。此外，冷冻凝胶在使用人脂肪源性干细胞（hASCs）的体外研究中表现出有趣的微环境，支持其存活和增殖。在物理化学和体外研究中，在其配方中含有岩藻聚糖的系统，即 C（jCOL、sCHT、aFUC）和 C（jCOL、sCHT、aFUC、aCS），在-80°C 下进行处理，是那些在未来关节软骨组织应用中表现出最有前景的结果的系统。
