Functional testing on engineered cartilage to identify the role played by shearing

Damaged or degenerated cartilage tissue cannot heal by itself owing to a limited inner nutrient supply. Fibrosis of regenerated cartilage makes current therapeutic approaches such as mosaicplasty or microfracture ineffective [1 –3] in the long run. Tissue-engineered (TE) cartilage remains an alternative but promising approach to small- and medium-sized cartilage defects. Therefore, the mechanical properties of TE cartilage have become major obstacles to its clinical application [4–6]. Studies have shown that extracellu lar matrix (ECM) components such as collagen and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are strongly correlated with the mechanical strength of TE cartilage tissue [1,7,8].
Source: Medical Engineering and Physics - Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Source Type: research