NOVEL APPROACH TO SCAFFOLDS FOR ARTICULAR CARTILAGE REPAIR

Use of scaffolds for articular cartilage repair (ACR) has increased over the last years with many biomaterials options suggested for this purpose. It is known that scaffolds for ACR have to be optimally biodegradable with simultaneous promotion of chondrogenesis, favouring hyaline cartilage formation under rather complex biomechanical and physiological conditions. Whereas improvement of the scaffolds by their conditioning with stem cells or adult chondrocytes can be employed in bioreactors, “ideal” scaffolds should be capable of performing such functions directly after implantation. It was previously considered that scaffold structure and composition would be the best if it mimics the structure of native cartilage. However, in this case no clear reparative stimuli are being imposed on the scaffold area, which would drive chondrocytes activity in a desired way. In this work, we studied new xeno-free, recombinant human type III collagen-laden polylactide (PLA) mesh scaffolds, which have been designed, produ...