The phenotypic responses of human anterior cruciate ligament cells cultured on poly(epsilon-caprolactone) and chitosan.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the phenotypic responses of human anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) cells on two biodegradable materials: poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) and chitosan. ACL cells cultured on PCL displayed phenotypes that were well spread with a developed cytoskeleton. In comparison, chitosan was not an appropriate substrate to support the attachment and spreading of ACL cells, which was attributed to the low fibronectin (FN) adsorption of chitosan. However, ACL cells cultured on chitosan exhibited a dramatic effect on increasing transcripts of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF beta1) and collagen III. After coating FN on chitosan surface, cell morphology and the mRNA levels of all tested genes had the similar levels on PCL and FN-coated chitosan. This indicates the expression of TGF beta1 and collagen III mRNA of human ACL cells was seem to correlate closely with the adhesion behavior of human ACL cells and was influenced by the underlying substrate properties. Since an ideal scaffold used in ACL tissue engineering is not only for cell attachment but also for extracellular matrix deposition during ligament regeneration, chitosan may be considered as a scaffold for ACL tissue engineering, which can upregulate the expression of specific genes of matrix production and wound healing in human ACL cells to synthesize more quantity of FN and TGF beta1 proteins.