Zigan Clarisse, Benito Alston Claudia, Chatterjee Aritra, Solorio Luis, Chan Deva D
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2025 Jan;53(1):120-132. doi: 10.1007/s10439-024-03613-x. Epub 2024 Sep 14.
To elucidate the mechanisms of cellular mechanotransduction, it is necessary to employ biomaterials that effectively merge biofunctionality with appropriate mechanical characteristics. Agarose and collagen separately are common biopolymers used in cartilage mechanobiology and mechanotransduction studies but lack features that make them ideal for functional engineered cartilage. In this study, agarose is blended with collagen type I to create hydrogels with final concentrations of 4% w/v or 2% w/v agarose with 2 mg/mL collagen. We hypothesized that the addition of collagen into a high-concentration agarose hydrogel does not diminish mechanical properties. Acellular and cell-laden studies were completed to assess rheologic and compressive properties, contraction, and structural homogeneity in addition to cell proliferation and sulfated glycosaminoglycan production. Over 21 days in culture, cellular 4% agarose-2 mg/mL collagen I hydrogels seeded with primary murine chondrocytes displayed structural and bulk mechanical behaviors that did not significantly alter from 4% agarose-only hydrogels, cell proliferation, and continual glycosaminoglycan production, indicating promise toward the development of an effective hydrogel for chondrocyte mechanotransduction and mechanobiology studies.
为阐明细胞机械转导的机制，有必要使用能有效将生物功能与适当机械特性相结合的生物材料。单独的琼脂糖和胶原蛋白是软骨力学生物学和机械转导研究中常用的生物聚合物，但缺乏使其成为功能性工程软骨理想材料的特性。在本研究中，将琼脂糖与I型胶原蛋白混合，制成最终浓度为4% w/v琼脂糖与2 mg/mL胶原蛋白或2% w/v琼脂糖与2 mg/mL胶原蛋白的水凝胶。我们假设向高浓度琼脂糖水凝胶中添加胶原蛋白不会降低其机械性能。除了细胞增殖和硫酸化糖胺聚糖的产生外，还完成了脱细胞和细胞负载研究，以评估流变学和压缩性能、收缩以及结构均匀性。在培养超过21天的时间里，接种原代小鼠软骨细胞的4%琼脂糖-2 mg/mL I型胶原蛋白水凝胶表现出的结构和整体机械行为与仅含4%琼脂糖的水凝胶相比没有显著变化，细胞增殖和糖胺聚糖持续产生，这表明有望开发出一种有效的水凝胶用于软骨细胞机械转导和力学生物学研究。
