Histological analysis of induced cartilage on the biodegradable or nonbiodegradable membranes from immature muscular tissue in vitro

Successful tissue engineering relies on a combination of cells, cytokines, and appropriate scaffolds. Here, we tried to induce the formation of cartilage in vitro using immature muscular tissue, crude bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) as a source of the cytokine, and biodegradable membranes (BioMend®; BM and GC-membrane; GC-M) or a nonbiodegradable membrane (GORE-TEX®; GT) as scaffolds. Crude BMP was extracted from bovine cortical bones, dried, and dissolved in 1M urea before it was added to immature muscular tissue from the forelimbs of fetal Sprague Dawley rats at 20 days of pregnancy. The tissue was then cultured for 2 weeks in a carbon dioxide incubator. Complete cartilage was observed only when GT was used as a scaffold. In addition, cartilage-like tissue formation was observed when BM was used, and partial cartilage formation was observed for GC-M. Therefore, these results show that immature muscular tissue differentiated into cartilage and GORE-TEX® is the most effective material for use as a scaffold in this model of tissue engineering. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 2008