Human tissue allograft processing: impact on in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility.

This work investigates the impact of chemical and physical treatments on biocompatibility for human bone/tendon tissues. Nontreated and treated tissues were compared. In vitro testing assessed indirect and direct cytotoxicity. Tissues were subcutaneously implanted in rats to assess the immunological, recolonization, and revascularization processes at 2-4 weeks postimplantation. No significant cytotoxicity was found for freeze-dried treated bones and tendons in comparison to control. The cellular adhesion was significantly reduced for cells seeded on these treated tissues after 24 h of direct contact. A significant cytotoxicity was found for frozen treated bones in comparison to freeze-dried treated bones. Tissue remodeling with graft stability, no harmful inflammation, and neo-vascularization was observed for freeze-dried chemically treated bones and tendons. Frozen-treated bones were characterized by a lack of matrix recolonization at 4 weeks postimplantation. In conclusion, chemical processing with freeze-drying of human tissues maintains in vitro biocompatibility and in vivo tissue remodeling for clinical application.

Effect of cyclic stretching and TGF-beta on the SMAD pathway in fibroblasts.

Tissue engineering requires the response of the cells to different stimuli inducing the synthesis of the extracellular matrix (ECM). It was been shown that mechanical and biochemical stimuli acted on the synthesis of ECM, particularly type I and III collagens. Growth factors implied in transduction pathways are multiple, but the main is TGF-beta. Member of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) family bind to type II and type I serine/threonine kinase receptors, which initiate intracellular signals through activation of SMADs proteins. Nevertheless, the effects of mechanical stress of this pathway remain unknown. The aim of this work was to study the pathway of TGF-beta via the SMADs proteins under mechanical (stretching) and biochemical (TGF-beta) stimulations. Endogenous SMADs expression and its modulation by biochemical and mechanical stimulations were evaluated by both flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Our results demonstrate that 10 ng of TGF-beta and stretching (5%, 1 Hz) applied during 15 min induced a negative feed back loop which blocks the signalling pathway to control TGF-beta activity. This inhibition effect was raised after 1 h of stimulation. Nevertheless, these preliminary studies should be continued by study of expression and localization of inhibitory SMADs (SMAD7).

In vitro biocompatibility of different polyester membranes.

Nowadays, synthetic biodegradable polymers, such as aliphatic polyesters, are largely used in tissue engineering. They provide several advantages compared to natural materials which use is limited by immunocompatibility, graft availability, etc. In this work, poly(L-lactic) acid (PLLA), poly(DL-lactic) acid (PDLA), poly-epsilon-caprolactone (PCL), poly(L-lactic)-co-caprolactone (molar ratio 70/30) (PLCL) were selected because of their common use in tissue engineering. The membranes were elaborated by solvent casting. Membrane morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy. The membranes were seeded with human fibroblasts from cell line CRL 2703 in order to evaluate the biocompatibility by the Alamar blue test. The roughness of the membranes ranged from 4 nm for PDLA to 120 nm and they presented very smooth surface except for PCL which beside a macroscopic structure due to its hydrophobicity. Human fibroblasts proliferated over 28 days on the membranes proving the non-in vitro toxicity of the materials and of the processing method. A further step will be the fabrication of three-dimensional scaffold for tissue engineering and the treatment of the scaffolds to augment cell adhesion.

Kinetics of the endocytotic pathway of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) in human endothelial cells line under shear stress: an in vitro confocal microscopy study.

We studied the effect of mechanical forces (shear stress) on the kinetics of internalization of native LDL and ox-LDL in endothelial cell line ECV304. This study was performed by using Confocal microscopy and FRET with two carbocyanine dyes, 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiO) as the donor and 3,3'-dioctadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) as the receptor. The cells were incubated with a culture medium containing either 10 microg/ml DiI-LDL or DiO-LDL in static conditions or subjected to a laminar flow under a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (SP2 Leica, Germany). The results showed: (1) the possibility to evaluate the kinetics of LDL endocytosis in living cells, (2) shear stress in comparison with control group more effectively enhanced LDL uptake, (3) ox-LDL (>50 microg/ml) >4 hours incubation was found to affect the cells as reflected by their detachment at low shear stress.

Role of Ca2+ in the effects of shear stress and TNF-alpha on caveolin-1 expression.

The aim of this work was to study the influences of Ca2+ (medium free calcium, with BAPTA, with 100 mM Ca2+, 100 mM Ca2++10 microM ionomycin) on the expression of caveolin-1 (structural protein of caveolae) of endothelial cells (ECs) submitted to mechanical forces (shear stress) or biochemical stimulation (TNF-alpha). We found that shear stress enhanced the caveolin-1 expression. Simultaneously, the caveolin-1 expression is dependant on [Ca2+]i: [Ca2+]free medium+100 microM BAPTA<[Ca2+]free medium<[Ca2+]100 mM<[Ca2+]100 mM+10 microM ionomycin. In contrast, TNF-alpha induced a decrease of caveolin-1 in the cells, whatever the [Ca2+]i. These results suggest that there could be a synergistic effect between shear stress and Ca2+ on caveolin-1 expression but an inflammatory stimulation (TNF-alpha) induces a down regulation of caveolin-1 expression.

From hemorheology to vascular mechanobiology: An overview.

Almost all of the cells of the human body are subjected to mechanical stresses. In endothelial cells, mechanical stresses can vary from some milli-Pascal (shear stress) to one ore more Pascal (hydrostatic pressure). Now it is know that mechanical stresses have a decisive part cellular physiology. However, if the main biological effects of mechanical stress are well related, the mechanisms allowed the relation between mechanical stress to physiological phenomenon remain nearly unknown (mechanotransduction phenomenon). In this work, through personal results and published works, the authors considers all the effects of mechanical stresses and the possible hypothesis.