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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Mechanical Stimulation of Chondrocyte-agarose Hydrogels
Published on: October 27, 2012
Role of Physico-Chemical and Cellular Conditions on the Bone Repair Potential of Plastically Compressed Collagen
Daline Mbitta Akoa1, Ludovic Sicard2,3, Christophe Hélary1
1Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris, 75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
Since their first description nearly 20 years ago, dense collagen hydrogels obtained by plastic compression have become popular scaffolds in tissue engineering. In particular, when seeded with dental pulp stem cells, they have demonstrated a great in vivo potential in cranial bone repair. Here, we investigated how physico-chemical and cell-seeding conditions could influence the formation and in vitro mineralization of these cellularized scaffolds. A qualitative assessment demonstrated that the gel stability before and after compression was highly sensitive to the conditions of fibrillogenesis, especially initial acid acetic and buffer concentrations. Gels with similar rheological properties but different fibrillar structures that exhibited different stabilities when used for the 3D culture of Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth (SHEDs) could be prepared. Finally, in our optimal physico-chemical conditions, mineralization could be achieved only using human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) at a high cell density. These results highlight the key role of fibrillogenic conditions and cell type/density on the bone repair potential of cell-laden plastically compressed collagen hydrogels.
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