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

Abstract

<strong><em>Objective(s):</em></strong> 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. <br/><strong><em>Materials and Methods:</em></strong> 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. <br/><strong><em>Results:</em></strong> 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 <em>(P˂</em> 0.05<em>)</em>. <br/><strong><em>Conclusion:</em></strong> These findings indicate that chondrons obtained from osteoarthritic articular cartilage did not stimulate chondrogenic differentiation of IPFP-ASCs in co-culture.