Construction of tissue engineered cartilage with bone marrow stromal cells seeding on rapid prototyping poly scaffold

    LI Xuª²Sheng, HU Yunª²Yu, FAN Hongª²Bin, BAI Jianª²Ping, L¦a Rong, TENG Yong, WANG Jun

    Institute of Orthopedics, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710033, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the possibility of cartilage engineering using bone marrow stromal cells and rapid prototyping porous poly scaffolds. METHODS: Adult rabbit bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) were cultured in chondrogenic medium to induce them to express chondrocyte phenotype. The induced cells were implanted onto the rapid prototyping porous poly scaffolds (polyª²lacticª²coª²glycolic acid, PLGA) and cultured for 2 weeks. The cellª²loaded scaffolds were implanted into a muscle pocket. The specimens were harvested at 8 weeks after implantation and examined histologically. The tissues were stained with toluidine blue for proteoglycan and immunohistochemically detected for type II collagen. RESULTS: BMSC of adult rabbits cultured in chondrogenic medium expressed chondrocyte phenotype. Scanning electron microscopy showed that BMSC expanded on rapid prototyping porous poly scaffolds. Type II collagen was identified in the cartilaginous tissues. CONCLUSION: The construction of a tissueª²engineered cartilage is possible with chondrogenesis induced BMSC seeding on rapid prototyping porous poly scaffolds in a nonª²joint environment. ......