Investigation of Required Mechanical Properties of Adhesive Bond between Native and Tissue-Engineered Cartilage

INTRODUCTION: A major challenge in engineering cartilage repair is the integration of the tissue-engineered construct (TEC) with the adjacent native cartilage. Low cellularity of cartilage, low mobility of chondrocytes and the fact that native chondrocytes at the edge of the defect may be damaged contribute to decreased graft integration with the host tissue. Adhesives such as fibrin are frequently used for joining TEC with native cartilage to stabilize the implant in the defect area and improve its integration. However, fibrin adhesive at the interface may fail under physiologic loads [1]. Understanding the mechanical loading environment and failure mechanisms of adhesives at the interface are thus critical for finding methods to improve integrative repair of AC. Computational models are valuable tools for understanding in vivo loading conditions, but have not been previously applied to the adhesive bond between TEC and native AC. Our objective in this study was to investigate the effect of different adhesive material properties that could lead to successful adherence of TEC and native tissue under idealized physiological loads.