Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Cartilage Tissue Engineering
Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells and 3D
Chitosan Scaffolds
-
In vitro
and
in vivo
Assays
Natália Martins Breyner, Alessandra Arcoverde Zonari,
Juliana Lott Carvalho, Viviane Silva Gomide,
Dawidson Gomes and Alfredo Miranda Góes
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Federal University of Minas Gerais),
Institute of Biologic Science, Department of Biochemistry and Immunology,
Brazil
1. Introduction
Cartilage tissue has only one cell type, the chondrocyte, wich is immerse in extracellular
matrix composed mainly by collagen type II. Because of such properties, cartilage tissue
doens't heal spontaneously after a lesion, which with time becomes progressive and chronic.
Cartilage lesions may be caused by automobile and sport accidents, as well as by normal
wear due to age, and usually generate severe pain and difficulty of mobility in patients.
Therefore, cartilage disease is a common type of lesion to which everyone is susceptible and
represents a very important public health problem in the world (Willians et al, 2006).
Initial therapies to treat cartilage lesions included replacement surgery with artificial or
natural organs and tissue grafts. Artificial and natural organ transplants and tissue grafts,
on the other hand, are able to fully replace organs or tissues, but require continuous and
permanent immune therapy to reduce immunological response to graft and to increase the
longevity of transplanted tissue. Therefore, although major progresses were done in the
field of cartilage tissue regenerative medicine during the years, current therapies still
present limitations. Moreover, no adequate cartilage substitute has been developed. Thus,
most of the severe injuries related to cartilage are still unrecoverable or not adequately
treated. Therefore, these methods are helpful but need modification to develop better novel
or alternative therapies (Ikada et al, 2006 and Tabata et al, 2009).
In such context emerges tissue engineering, which has been defined by Langer and Vacanti
as: ''an interdisciplinary field of research that applies the principles of engineering and the
life sciences towards the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or
improve tissue function” (Salgado et al, 2004).
Tissue Engineering or Bioengineering is based on three elements: (i) cells; (ii) scaffolds and
(iii) signalling molecules. These elements integrate themselves and promote the new tissue
development (Langer and Vacanti, 1993; Ikada et al, 2006 and Chiang et al, 2009). In order to
mimic tissue structure, tissue engineering also requires 3 dimensional cell cultures, which, in
contrast to traditional bidimensional cell culture, has only been developed recently.
Nowadays, it is beyond dispute that this cell culture strategy presents many advantages,
