Mechanical loading of adipose derived stromal cells causes cell alignment

Osteoarthritis is a debilitating disease that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Current research involving growth and characterization of adipose derived stromal cells (ADSC) in vitro offers a potential solution for the treatment of cartilage defects that will allow patients to return to the physical activities they were involved in. Studies have shown that fibroblast cells grown in vitro respond to cyclic mechanical stretching by orienting in a direction perpendicular to the direction of stretch. ADSCs were isolated from human peripatellar adipose tissue discards. Cells were cultured until confluent and seeded at a density of approximately 105 cells in silicone wells pretreated with ProNectin-F Plus. After stretching, relative alignment of the cells was ascertained using imaging software. Stretching cells for 3, 4, 8 and 12 hours resulted in noticeable cellular alignment of approximately 60 ̊ relative to the direction of loading. Cell alignment is crucial for developing tissueengineered cartilage that has similar mechanical properties to native cartilage. Mechanically loading cells is one method to achieve cell alignment. Since cell differentiation will be initiated after alignment, the resulting chondrocytes will be aligned, leading to organized collagen formation and resulting in a hyaline-like cartilage structure.