Effects of Hydrostatic Pressure on Biosynthetic Activity during Chondrogenic Differentiation of MSCs in Hybrid Scaffolds

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of hydrostatic pressure (HP) on the biochemical properties and gene expression of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering composed of poly(caprolactone) (PCL) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) gelatin (GEL) semi interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN). The MSCs were cultured on PCL-PVA-GEL semi-IPN scaffolds in two groups (A and B) for 7 and 21 days, respectively, and then loaded with hydrostatic pressure (5 MPa, 0.5 Hz) for 2 h per day for the period of 7 days and compared with two non-loaded groups (C and D) as controls. DMMB and real-time PCR analysis for assaying cartilage-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) gene markers were carried out. According to the results, there were no significant differences in GAG amounts between the loaded and non-loaded constructs were observed after 14 days. However, significant and considerable increases in the expression amount of type II collagen mRNA levels in group A (from 2.43 × 10−4 ± 5.32 × 10−5 to 2.09 × 10−3 ± 1.07 × 10−4 time), and in group B (from 3.04 × 10−4 ± 4.31 × 10−5 to 2.08 × 10−3 ± 1.59 × 10−4 time) in comparison with non-loaded groups (C and D) were observed, respectively. Results showed the beneficial role of hydrostatic pressure on the increase of type II collagen mRNA levels in articular cartilage tissue engineering.