[Small intestine submucosa as a scaffold for cartilage reconstruction in vitro]

This paper is aimed to investigate the feasibility of applying the small intestine submucosa (SIS) as the scaffold in constructing tissue engineering cartilage in vitro. We obtained SIS from the small intestine of specific pathogen-free pigs. Then we isolated tunica submucosa layer from the mucosal, muscular, and serosal layers by gentle mechanic abrasion. The SIS was made acellular by combination of detergent and enzyme digestion. The chondrocytes were seeded onto the SIS and were cultured for 3 weeks. The cell growth, attachment and distribution were detected by histochemical stain, immunohistochemical stain and scan electron microscope. The chondrocytes could adhere and grow well on the matrix surface, and synthesize a large of the GAG and type U collagen. However, the chondrocytes grew only on the surface andsuperficial layer of the scaffold, they did not move into the inner part of the scaffold. It could be concluded that SIS has good cellular compatibility without cytotoxicity and provides temporary substrate to which these anchorage-dependent cells can adhere, and stimulate the chondrocytes anchored on the scaffold to proliferate and keep differentiated phenotype. Further study will be needed to promote the ability of chondrocyte chemotaxis in order to distribute the chondrocytes into the whole scaffold uniformly.