Study of chondrogenic potential of stem cells in co-culture with chondrons

Objective(s): Three-dimensional biomimetic scaffolds have widespread applications in biomedical tissue engineering due to similarity of their nanofibrous architecture to native extracellular matrix. Co-culture system has stimulatory effect on chondrogenesis of adult mesenchymal stem cells. This work presents a co-culture strategy using human articular chondrons and adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) from infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) for cartilage tissue production. Materials and Methods: Isolated stem cells were characterized by flowcytometry. Electrospun and polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds (900 nm fiber diameter) was obtained from Bon Yakhteh (Tehran- Iran) and human infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells (IPFP-ASCs) were seeded on them. IPFP- ASCs on scaffolds were co-cultured with articular chondrons using transwell. After 21 day, chondrogenic differentiation of stem cell was evaluated by determining the genes expression of collagen2, aggrecan and Indian hedgehog using real- time RT-PCR. Results: Genes expression of collagen2, aggrecan by IPFP-ASCs did not alter significantly in comparison with control group. Howevers, expression of Indian hedgehog decreased significantly compared to control group (P˂ 0.05). Conclusion: These findings indicate that chondrons obtained from osteoarthritic articular cartilage did not stimulate chondrogenic differentiation of IPFP-ASCs in co-culture.