| Objective: To investigate whether cartilage tissue can develop by self-assembling process with chondrogenically differentiated human mesenchymal stem cells.Methods: Human mesenchymal stem cells were cultured and differentiated chondrogenically by growth and differentiation factor-5 in vitro, then self-assembled to form three-dimensional structures. After 4 weeks of self-assembly, the tissue-engineered constructs were observed and detected by morphological, histological and histochemical study.Results: The tissue-engineered constructs were hyaline-like in appearance, and had a conspicuous expression of CollagenⅡ, aggrecan, GAG and Proteoglycan. The mean optical density of CollagenⅡexpression in the GDF-5 was (0.1678±0.0222), which was higher than that in the control group (0.0908±0.0145)(P <0.05).Conclution: The constructs had the histological, biochemical, and biomechanical properties approaching those of native articular cartilage. Self-assembled cultures appear promising for tissue engineering of cartilage.
|
PDF Full Text Request