BIOLOGICAL RESPONSE OF CHONDROCYTES CULTURED IN AN ELECTROSPUN THREE-DIMENSIONALPOLY(e-CAPROLACTONE) SCAFFOLD

Introduction Differentiated chondrocytes have been widely employed in studies of cartilage regeneration and tissue engineering. However, the low cell density of cartilage poses the problem of low cell yield following isolation for direct seeding onto scaffolds. To overcome this problem, chondrocytes are usually expanded in monolayer cell culture before seeding on any scaffold. This approach introduces a new complication, cellular dedifferentiation and loss of chondrocytic phenotype. Redifferentiation can be initiated by seeding these dedifferentiated chondrocytes in a three-dimensional environment such as alginate, agarose, or other scaffolds. However, the gel-formatted biopolymers lack long term mechanical stability, thus limiting their applications to cartilage tissue engineering. Scaffolds produced by the electrospinning technique have shown favorable biological responses in our previous study [1]. The electrospinning process is a technique used to produce ultra-fine polymer fibers. In this study, we have introduced and characterized an electrospun three-dimensional structure composed of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers. Specifically, we have tested the ability of this unique structure to support chondrocyte attachment, proliferation and differentiation in vitro. We hypothesize that the architecture of the electrospun three-dimensional PCL scaffold favorably influences the physiological responses of fetal bovine chondrocytes (FBCs) in vitro.