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Updated: Jan 2, 2026
Athymic Rat Model for Evaluation of Engineered Anterior Cruciate Ligament Grafts
Published on: March 26, 2015
A LbL-Assembled Bioactive Coating Modified Nanofibrous Membrane for Rapid Tendon-Bone Healing in ACL Reconstruction
Fei Han1, Peng Zhang2, Tianwu Chen2
1Institute for Translational Medicine, Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Nanoscience, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, People's Republic of China.
Introduction:
In anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, hamstring tendon autograft is a well-accepted surgical choice as an alternative ACL graft. But the main disadvantage of autograft is its inefficient healing with host bone-tunnel which will leading to surgery failure.
Methods:
A biomimetic nanofibrous membrane for tendon-bone integration is fabricated in this work, which is composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospinning membrane and chitosan/hyaluronic acid (CS/HA) multilayers film.
Results:
By using layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly this functional CS/HA multilayer films are deposited on the surface of PCL nanofiber to enable the local delivery of stromal cell-derived factor-1 α (SDF-1α) and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) in tendon-bone interface. This membrane can promote cell proliferation and recruitment, as well as inducing the osteogenic differentiation and recruitment of BMSCs.
Conclusion:
Further in vivo studies demonstrate that to wrap the tendon autograft using the membrane may afford superior tendon-bone integration and inhibit scar tissue formation in a rabbit ACL reconstruction model. More importantly, the biomechanical properties of the tendon-bone interface have been improved. This study shows that this biomimetic nanofibrous membrane is effective for improving tendon-bone healing after ACL reconstruction surgery.
