The study on the role of the soluble factors secreted by engineered cartilage in inducing bone marrow stromal cells chondrogenesis / 中华整形外科杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the role of the soluble factors secreted by tissue engineered cartilage in promoting bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) chondrogenesis as an important aspect.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Porcine BMSCs, chondrocytes and dermal fibroblasts were respectively in vitro expanded and then seeded onto the polyglycolic acid/polylactic acid (PGA/PLA) scaffold. After 3 days, they were indirectly co-cultured by transwell. BMSCs-scaffold constructs were co-cultured with chondrocytes-scaffold constructs as experiment group (Exp), while co-cultured with fibroblasts-scaffold constructs as control group. BMSCs with the same cell number were seeded onto the scaffolds as another control group. There were 3 specimens in each group. All specimens were harvested after in vitro indirect co-culture for 8 weeks. Gross observation, histology, immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR were used to evaluate the results.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The BMSCs-scaffold constructs co-cultured with chondrocytes-scaffold shrunk gradually during in vitro culture, but formed the mature lacuna structures and metachromatic matrices, collagen II expression could be observed by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR examination. In the control group, the constructs shrunk greatly during in vitro culture and showed mainly fibrous tissue.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The soluble factors secreted by chondrocytes can solely induce chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs and thus promote the in vitro chondrogenesis of BMSCs.</p>