Optimisation of biochemical condition and substrates in vitro for tissue engineering of ligament

In this work, we analysed the effect of growth factors on in vitro cell proliferation and collagens synthesis by fibroblasts cultured for 72 h on different substrates (silicon sheet with or without 1% gelatin, and glass as control surface) for ligament tissue engineering. A human fibroblast cell line (CRL-2703) was used. The synthesis of type I and type III collagens were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively by RT-PCR and confocal microscopy, respectively. Cell proliferation was evaluated by two methods: (1) MTT assay (2) cell cycle analysis. It was found that PDGF-AB stimulate the proliferation of fibroblast cultured on gelatin coated silicon sheet in dose dependant manner with a maximum effect at 10 ng ml(-1). The exogenous TGF-beta1 induced the expression of type I and type III collagens in a dose and substrate-dependant manner. We deduce from this work that biochemical conditions and substrates have an important impact for optimisation of the tissue neo synthesis.