Protocols for the in vitro design of animal articular cartilage based on tissue engineering methods

Abstract

The articular cartilage is the structure that covers the joint ends. It has some specific tasks crucial to the correct joint physiology. It may experience a large amount of injuries that could generate considerable disabilities. Unfortunately its selfrepair capacity is too limited; therefore, many treatments have been developed with partial success, given the suboptimal biomechanical behavior of the resultant tissue. Given that, Tissue Engineering offers an alternative, based on the design of a new tissue with biological and biomechanical features which resembles the native tissue. In this work, the authors describe the methodologies followed to accomplish that goal, studying the chondrocytes harvesting, the cellular cultures, the scaffold seeding processes, the mechanical stimulation and the structural and biomechanical evaluation. Finally, exposed some of the preliminary results, as a experimental validation of the methods proposed are.

Keywords

• Condrocitos
• biopolimeros
• biomecánica
• cultivos celulares
• mecanobiología