J. Henstock, S. Nikfarjam, A. Haleem, M. Khandaker
University of Central Oklahoma,
United States
Keywords: osteochondral regeneration, PCL-PEGDA scaffold, tissue engineering, weight-bearing joints, 3D printing, BMSCs
Summary:
Critical-sized articular cartilage defects of weight-bearing joints (osteochondral lesions/OCLs) contribute to the development of osteoarthritis(O.A), with major socioeconomic impact. Studies showed that no clinically available treatment for OCLs exhibits superiority of one over another, with formation of biomechanically inferior repair tissue (fibro-hyaline cartilage) with questionable longevity. This also cannot withstand early postoperative weight-bearing (WB), requiring prolonged offloading/immobilization before returning to functional levels. 3D-Printing has allowed advent of patient- and lesion-specific tissue-engineered scaffolds that can be tailored to patient anatomy and lesion size/location, while allowing simultaneous mounting of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) to augment healing potential and supplying sufficient rigidity to allow immediate WB, potentiating the quality of repair and implant integration through loading. Finally, controlled biodegradation of these implants allows replacement with native repair tissue. The aim of this project is to optimize the prior developed 3D-PCL-PEGDA scaffold to improve chondro-conductivity and biocompatibility, advancing milestones of Year 1. This will require reconstruing the prototype and includes modulation and adjusting biocomposition to improve BMSCs proliferation, osteo-and chondro-inductoion invitro and invivo for rabbit knee OCLs. Hypothesis is that this optimized scaffold will demonstrate superior biomechanics allowing immediate WB, and superior chondrogenesis with hyaline-like repair tissue. Innovation is the ability to tailor this scaffold via 3D printing to match patient/lesion specifics, imaging with novel non-invasive polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) imaging technology, with potential to biologically resurface larger portions of WB joints, optimizing functional outcomes. This will have major implications in clinical management of patients with OCLs.