Effects of ascorbic acid concentration on the tissue engineering of the temporomandibular joint disc

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc is a specialized fibrocartilaginous tissue. When the disc becomes an obstacle and becomes damaged, surgeons have no choice but to perform a discectomy. Tissue engineering may provide a novel treatment modality for TMJ disorder patients who undergo discectomy. No studies have been conducted on the most favourable media for TMJ disc cells. The objective of the current study was to examine the effects on biochemical and biomechanical properties of varying ascorbic acid concentrations (0, 25, or 50 microg/ml) on TMJ disc cells seeded on non-woven PGA scaffolds. The ascorbic acid concentration of the 25 microg/ml group resulted in more effective cell seeding of the scaffolds, with 1.53 million cells per construct, by comparison with the 0 and 50 microg/ml groups which had 1.20 million and 1.32 million cells per scaffold respectively. At week 4, the 25 microg/ml group had a higher collagen content than the 0 microg/ml group, with 30.4 +/- 2.7 and 24.9 +/- 3.3 microg of collagen per construct respectively. The 25 microg/ml group had a higher aggregate modulus than the 50 microg/ml group, with values of 6.1 +/- 1.3 and 4.0 +/- 0.9 kPa respectively at week 4. The results of this study indicate that the use of 25 microg/ml of ascorbic acid in culture media is effective for the tissue engineering of the TMJ disc, significantly outperforming media without or with 50 microg/ml of ascorbic acid.