ABSTRACT
In the present study, we aimed to demonstrate the differentiating properties of platelet-rich plasma releasates (PRPr) on human chondrocytes seeded on a polygtlycolic acid (PGA) 3D scaffold. Gene expression and biochemical analysis were carried out to assess the improved quality of our PGA-based cartilage constructs supplemented with PRPr. We observed that the use of PRPr as cell cultures supplementation to PGA-chondrocyte constructs may promote chondrocyte differentiation, and thus may contribute to maintaining the chondrogenic phenotype longer than conventional supplementation by increasing high levels of important chondrogenic markers (e.g. sox9, aggrecan and type II collagen), without induction of type I collagen. Moreover, our constructs were analysed for the secretion and deposition of important ECM molecules (sGAG, type II collagen, etc.). Our results indicate that PRPr supplementation may synergize with PGA-based scaffolds to stimulate human articular chondrocyte differentiation, maturation and phenotypic maintenance.