Comparative Study On Regeneration Of Cartilage On Chitosan, Type Ⅱ Collagen, PGA Scaffold In Vitro By Tissue Engineering

Objective:To observe the ability of chitosan, type II collagen, PGA in supporting the growth of rabbit chondrocytes, and to find out better scaffold in tissue engineering.Methods:According to the scaffolds, the experiment was divided into three groups: chitosan, typeⅡcollagen and PGA. Every group has 13 samples. Coated chitosan, typeⅡcollagen and PGA with polylysine, free chondrocytes isolated from rabbit articular cartilage were seeded onto three kinds of spongy scaffolds after amplification in vitro. After 4 weeks of culture, the tissue engineering cartilages were observed in vitro and assessed by histological staining of H-E. Then, the content of DNA and the secretion of typeⅡcollagen and GAG in cartilages were detected in quantitative way.Results:After 4 weeks of culture, the tissue engineering cartilages of chitosan group were bigger and thicker than other groups, they were similar to normal articular cartilages more than others. The histology observation shows: the cell quantity of chitosan group was the maximum, the chondrocytes presented circular and arranged closely, they were surrounded by a great quantity of extracellular matrix. TypeⅡcollagen group was the second. The cell quantity of PGA group was the minimum, the cells presented triangle or fusiform and arranged sparsely, the matrix they secreted was the least. Quantitative detection shows: the content of DNA and the secretion of typeⅡcollagen and GAG of chitosan group were the first, TypeⅡcollagen group was the second, PGA group was the least. The one-way ANOVA reveals: the difference between three groups has statistical significance(P＜0.01). Articular chondrocytes in chitosan scaffold proliferated well by contrast with other scaffolds, and maintained their phenotype throughout the culture period, which secreted more typeⅡcollagen and GAG than other two scaffolds.Conclusions:Chitosan scaffold coated with polylysine can support the chondrocytes multiplication with maintenance of their phenotype, and can be a better carrier for regeneration of cartilage by tissue engineering.