Highly open porous biodegradable microcarriers: In vitro cultivation of chondrocytes for injectable delivery

Hyun Jung Chung, In Kyoung Kim, Taek Gyoung Kim, Tae Gwan Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Injectable cell therapy would provide a patient-friendly procedure for treatment of degenerated or wounded tissue. Biodegradable injectable porous microspheres were fabricated to use as dual-purpose microcarriers for cell culture and injectable scaffold for tissue regeneration. Gas foaming in a water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion was performed for fabricating the well-interconnected porous microcarriers using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA). The gas foaming conditions were finely tuned to control the structural and morphological characteristics. Porous microcarriers with a mean size of approximately 175 μm and an average pore diameter of approximately 29 μm were produced for cell cultivation and injectable delivery. To promote cell seeding, amine-functionalized porous microcarriers were prepared by blending amine-functionalized PLGA with unreacted PLGA. To assess the porous microcarriers for chondrocyte cultivation, bovine articular chondrocytes were seeded and cultured in vitro in spinner flasks for 4 weeks. Visualization and biochemical analyses of the microcarrier-cell constructs were performed to demonstrate cell proliferation and phenotypic expression. Quantification of deoxyribonucleic acid, glycosaminoglycan, and collagen content showed that much greater cell proliferation and expression of cartilage-specific phenotype were observed for cultures in the following order: amine-functionalized porous microcarriers, porous microcarriers, nonporous microcarriers, and monolayer culture.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)607-615
Number of pages9
JournalTissue Engineering - Part A.
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2008
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Highly open porous biodegradable microcarriers: In vitro cultivation of chondrocytes for injectable delivery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this