ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:Articular cartilage injury is often complicated by subchondral bone damage to form osteochondral defects, and its treatment remains a pressing problem in orthopedics. Osteochondral composite grafts fabricated by tissue engineering technology provide a new way to repair osteochondral defects. OBJECTIVE:To explore the feasibility of fabricating osteochondral composite grafts in an independently designed double-chamber stirring bioreactor. METHODS: Goat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels were seeded into β-tricalcium phosphate scaffolds. The cel/scaffold constructs were subjected to chondrogenic and osteogenic induction simultaneously in the double-chamber stirring bioreactor. According to the applied shear stress, they were divided into dynamic and static culture groups. The proliferation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels was detected by MTT test and scanning electron microscope examination. Osteogenesis and chondrogenesis related genes were detected by RT-PCR for the evaluation of chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels in both dynamic and static culturegroups demonstrated satisfactory proliferation and differentiation. Better proliferation and differentiation ability were found in the dynamic culture group. Fabrication of osteochondral composite grafts in the independently.designed double-chamber stirring bioreactor is feasible, which is better under the mechanical stimulus environment than the static environment.