A novel injectable scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering using adipose-derived adult stem cells

Articular cartilage has a limited self-regenerative capacity. Thus, treatment of cartilage lesions is a major challenge. Tissue engineering using a variety of biomaterials is a promising solution to the problem of cartilage damage. In this in vitro study, we investigated the effect of the presence of cartilage-tissue chondroitin-sulfate (CS) in a fibrin scaffold on the differentiation of adipose-derived adult stem cells (ADAS cells) into chondrocytes. Isolated rabbit ADAS cells were cultured in fibrin matrices with and without CS for up to 14 days. ADAS cells differentiated into chondrocytes in both matrices, but cell proliferation, glycoaminoglycans content, and type II collagen expression were significantly higher in the fibrin-CS matrices than those in the fibrin matrices alone. Histological examination and scanning electronic microscopy revealed the fibrin-CS matrices exceeded in inducing differentiation of ADAS cells into chondrocytes in terms of tissue morphological characteristics. We concluded that the fibrin-CS matrices mimicking native cartilage extracellular matrix could act as a three-dimensional scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering and have the potential for promoting ADAS cells differentiation into chondrocytes.