Micrometer Scale Guidance of Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Form Structurally Oriented Extracellular Matrix

Introduction Current clinical techniques to repair injured cartilage do not offer a long-term solution. Tissue engineering is viewed as a favorable option for long-term repair of cartilage lesions, but tissue engineered cartilage constructs generally have inferior mechanical strength compared to native cartilage. Researchers attribute this problem to a lack of an oriented structure in the constructs at the microscale that is present in the native tissue. The goal of our research is to test the hypothesis that microscale features on the substrate will cause the differentiating mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to arrange themselves preferentially and to create an oriented extracellular matrix on the microscale similar to native tissue structure. In this first set of experiments, human MSCs seeded in the channels were shown to be seeded selectively in the channels and to remain highly viable. In future experiments, these MSCs will be tested for the ability to differentiate chondrogenically and for improved mechanical strength of the resultant matrix.