Bonding and fusion of meniscus fibrocartilage using a novel chondroitin sulfate bone marrow tissue adhesive.

The weak intrinsic meniscus healing response and technical challenges associated with meniscus repair contribute to a high rate of repair failures and meniscectomies. Given this limited healing response, the development of biologically active adjuncts to meniscal repair may hold the key to improving meniscal repair success rates. This study demonstrates the development of a bone marrow (BM) adhesive that binds, stabilizes, and stimulates fusion at the interface of meniscus tissues.

An adhesive bone marrow scaffold and bone morphogenetic-2 protein carrier for cartilage tissue engineering.

A chondroitin sulfate-bone marrow (CS-BM) adhesive hydrogel was used to localize rhBMP-2 to enhance articular cartilage tissue formation. Chondrocyte pellet culture revealed that 0.1 and 1 μg/mL of rhBMP-2 enhanced sulfated-GAG content.

Hyaluronic acid-human blood hydrogels for stem cell transplantation.

Tissue engineering-based approaches have the potential to improve stem cell engraftment by increasing cell delivery to the myocardium. Our objective was to develop and characterize a naturally-derived, autologous, biodegradable hydrogel in order to improve acute stem cell retention in the myocardium. HA-blood hydrogels (HA-BL) were synthesized by mixing in a 1:1(v/v) ratio, lysed whole blood and hyaluronic acid (HA), whose carboxyl groups were functionalized with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) to yield HA succinimidyl succinate (HA-NHS).

Characterizing ECM production by cells encapsulated in hydrogels.

Hydrogels composed of hydrophilic polymers such as polyethylene glycol and alginate have been used as scaffolds for various tissue engineering applications. This chapter describes procedures for encapsulation of cells in hydrogels and subsequently characterizing the extracellular matrix (ECM) production by those cells using biochemical assays, gene expression analysis, and histology. In particular, the biochemical assays described here are used to quantify collagen, glycosaminoglycan (GAG), and DNA content in each scaffold.