Development of Novel Strategies for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Osteoarthritis is a world-wide problem causing morbidity and mortality which further leads to social and economical consequences. Self repair capacity of articular cartilage is limited due to its avascular and aneural nature, which calls for an efficient repair strategy. Furthermore small articular cartilage lesions if left untreated can lead to severe osteoarthritis and subsequent disability. Considering these factors there is urgent need to develop novel strategies for its repair. Tissue engineering has emerged as a potent field to repair the newlinedamaged tissue like bone, cartilage, skin, muscle, liver, heart etc. Major focus of this newlineresearch work is in the development of novel strategies for the repair of damaged cartilage due to alarming prevalence of cartilage associated diseases in general population and more so in younger population. newlineScaffold, cells and growth stimulating factors are generally considered as triad components of tissue engineering. Our primary aim was to synthesize the novel cryogel scaffold using polymers like chitosan, gelatin, and chondroitin sulfate. To enhance the fabrication efficacy we fabricated these scaffolds by employing a contemporary technology called quotcryogelationquot. Major advantage of using this technology is that it results in the fabrication of an extensively porous architecture which to some extent mimics the native cartilage and ECM combination. Furthermore, as this scaffold is fabricated using natural polymers it can newlinebe implanted at the site of cartilage defect without eliciting any major immune rejection newlinereactions. After scaffold was synthesized it was further characterized by different physical and mechanical techniques in order to check the whether scaffold has suitable physical, chemical and mechanical properties. To analyze the physical properties of novel chitosangelatin-chondroitin sulfate (CGC) scaffolds they were characterized by rheology, scanning 24 electron microscopy (SEM), and mechanical assay. Primary goat chondrocytes were used for in vitro characterization