Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTUSM), Shanghai, China.
School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu, Jiangsu, China.
Biomater Sci. 2024 Feb 27;12(5):1239-1248. doi: 10.1039/d3bm00548h.
The regeneration of tendon and bone junctions (TBJs), a fibrocartilage transition zone between tendons and bones, is a challenge due to the special triphasic structure. In our study, a silk fibroin (SF)-based triphasic scaffold consisting of aligned type I collagen (Col I), transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), and hydroxyapatite (HA) was fabricated to mimic the compositional gradient feature of the native tendon-bone architecture. Rat tendon-derived stem cells (rTDSCs) were loaded on the triphasic SF scaffold, and the high cell viability suggested that the scaffold presents good biocompatibility. Meanwhile, increased expressions of tenogenic-, chondrogenic-, and osteogenic-related genes in the TBJs were observed. The studies of the rTDSC-seeded scaffold in a rat TBJ rupture model showed tendon tissue regeneration with a clear transition zone within 8 weeks of implantation. These results indicated that the biomimetic triphasic SF scaffolds seeded with rTDSCs have great potential to be applied in TBJ regeneration.
肌腱和骨连接（TBJ）的再生是一个挑战，因为它是一种特殊的三相结构，纤维软骨过渡区。在我们的研究中，构建了一种由取向型 I 型胶原（Col I）、转化生长因子β（TGF-β）和羟基磷灰石（HA）组成的丝素蛋白（SF）基三相支架，以模拟天然肌腱-骨结构的组成梯度特征。将大鼠肌腱来源的干细胞（rTDSCs）加载到三相 SF 支架上，高细胞活力表明支架具有良好的生物相容性。同时，在 TBJ 中观察到肌腱发生、软骨发生和骨发生相关基因的表达增加。在大鼠 TBJ 断裂模型中，rTDSC 接种支架的研究表明，植入 8 周内可实现肌腱组织再生，并形成清晰的过渡区。这些结果表明，rTDSCs 接种的仿生三相 SF 支架在 TBJ 再生中具有很大的应用潜力。
