Fabrication of Customizable
and Reproducible 3D Chondrocyte-Laden
Nanofibrous Architectures: Effect of Specific Fiber Alignments and
Porosities on Chondrocyte Response under Cyclic Compression
posted on 2023-11-10, 15:56authored byÂngela Semitela, Susana C. Pinto, Ana Capitão, Paula A. A. P. Marques, António Completo
Electrospinning
has been widely employed to fabricate complex extracellular
matrix-like microenvironments for tissue engineering due to its ability
to replicate structurally biomimetic micro- and nanotopographic cues.
Nevertheless, these nanofibrous structures are typically either confined
to bidimensional systems or confined to three-dimensional ones that
are unable to provide controlled multiscale patterns. Thus, an electrospinning
modality was used in this work to fabricate chondrocyte-laden nanofibrous
scaffolds with highly customizable three-dimensional (3D) architectures
in an automated manner, with the ultimate goal of recreating a suitable
3D scaffold for articular cartilage tissue engineering. Three distinct
architectures were designed and fabricated by combining multiple nanofibrous
and chondrocyte-laden hydrogel layers and tested in vitro in a compression bioreactor system. Results demonstrated that it
was possible to precisely control the placement and alignment of electrospun
polycaprolactone and gelatin nanofibers, generating three unique architectures
with distinctive macroscale porosity, water absorption capacity, and
mechanical properties. The architecture organized in a lattice-like
fashion was highly porous with substantial pore interconnectivity,
resulting in a high-water absorption capacity but a poor compression
modulus and relatively weaker energy dissipation capacity. The donut-like
3D geometry was the densest, with lower swelling, but the highest
compression modulus and improved energy dissipation ability. The third
architecture combined a lattice and donut-like fibrous arrangement,
exhibiting intermediary behavior in terms of porosity, water absorption,
compression modulus, and energy dissipation capacity. The properties
of the donut-like 3D architecture demonstrated great potential for
articular cartilage tissue engineering, as it mimicked key topographic,
chemical, and mechanical characteristics of chondrocytes’ surrounding
environment. In fact, the combination of these architectural features
with a dynamically compressive mechanical stimulus triggered the best in vitro results in terms of viability and biosynthetic
production.