Microcavitary Hydrogel-Mediating Phase Transfer Cell Culture for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Hydrogels have been widely used as cell-laden vehicles for therapeutic transplantation in regenerative medicine. Although the advantages of biocompatibility and injectability for in situ grafting have made hydrogel a superior candidate in tissue engineering, there remain challenges in long-term efficacy of tissue development using hydrogel, especially when more sophisticated applications are demanded. The major bottleneck lies in environmental constraints for neo-tissue generation in the gel bulk such as proliferation of encapsulated cells (colonies) per se and also accommodation of their endogenously produced extracellular matrices. In this study, we endeavor to develop an innovative tissue engineering system to overcome these drawbacks through a novel microcavitary hydrogel (MCG)-based scaffolding technology and a novel phase transfer cell culture (PTCC) strategy to enable phenotypically bona fide neo-tissue formation in an injectable artificial graft. For this purpose, microspherical cavities are creat...