Porous chitosan-gelatin scaffold containing plasmid DNA encoding transforming growth factor- β1 for chondrocytes proliferation

• Published in: Biomaterials 2006-03, Vol.27 (7), p.1095-1103
• Main Authors: Guo, Ting, Zhao, Jianning, Chang, Jianbin, Ding, Zhi, Hong, Hao, Chen, Jiangning, Zhang, Junfeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cartilage defects; Chitosan; Gelatin; Gene-activated matrix; Transforming growth factor- β1
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2005.08.015

Cartilage defects as a result of disease or injury have a very limited ability to heal spontaneously. Recently, tissue engineering and local therapeutic gene delivery systems have been paid much attention in the cartilage natural healing process. Gene-activated matrix (GAM) blends these two strategies, serving as local bioreactor with therapeutic agents expression and also providing a structural template to fill the lesion defects for cell adhesion, proliferation and synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM). In the current study, we used chitosan-gelatin complex as biomaterials to fabricate three-dimensional scaffolds and plasmid DNA were entrapped in the scaffolds encoding transforming growth factor- β1 (TGF- β1), which has been proposed as a promoter of cartilage regeneration for its effect on the synthesis of matrix molecules and cell proliferation. The plasmid DNA incorporated in the scaffolds showed a burst release in the first week and a sustained release for the other 2 weeks. The gene transfectd into chondrocytes expresses TGF- β1 protein stably in 3 weeks. The histological and immunohistochemical results confirmed that the primary chondrocytes cultured into the chitosan-gelatin scaffold maintained round and owned characters of high secretion of specific ECM. From this study, it can be concluded that this gene-activated chitosan-gelatins matrix has a potential in the application of cartilage defects regeneration.