Scaffolds have an important role in cartilage tissue engineering. Poly(hydroxybutyrate‑co‑hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) has been demonstrated to have potential as a scaffold for the three dimensional construction of engineered cartilage tissue. However, the poor hydrophilicity and mechanical strength associated with PHBV affects its clinical applications as a scaffold in cartilage tissue engineering....

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 const...

Poor ability of cartilage tissue when experiencing a damage leads scientists to use tissue engineering as a reliable and effective method for regenerating or replacing damaged tissues. An artificial tissue should have some features such as biocompatibility, biodegradation and, enough mechanical properties like the original tissue. In this work, a composite hydrogel is prepared by using natural ...

Background: Integrins are a family of transmembrane proteins that allow communication between the extracellular matrix and the interior of cells. Chondrocytes, cells of articular cartilage, express integrins and these molecules appear to have a variety of roles including mechanotransduction. Integrins are known to associate with a number of accessory molecules such as CD147 that may act to regu...

INTRODUCTION Mouse models are used frequently to study effects of bone diseases and genetic determinates of bone strength. Murine bones have an intracortical band of woven bone that is not present in human bones. This band is not obvious under brightfield imaging and not typically analyzed. Due to the band's morphology and location it has been theorized to be remnant bone from early in life. Fu...

Traumatic events are a primary cause for local lesions of articular cartilage. If treated early, restoration of the initial joint geometry and integrity may be achieved. In large defects, sufficient material is not available to bridge the affected area. Heterologeous transplantation is not well accepted due to the risk of infection and immune response. Alternatives are cartilage-like structures...

Tissue engineering is viewed as a promising option for long-term repair of cartilage lesions, but current engineered cartilage constructs fail to match the mechanical properties of native tissue. The extracellular matrix of adult human articular cartilage contains highly organized collagen fibrils that enhance the mechanical properties of the tissue. Unlike articular cartilage, mesenchymal stem...

An ideal scaffold material is one that closely mimics the natural environment in the tissue-specific extracellular matrix (ECM). Therefore, we have applied hyaluronic acid (HA), which is a main component of the cartilage ECM, to chitosan as a fundamental material for cartilage regeneration. To mimic the structural environment of cartilage ECM, the fundamental structure of a scaffold should be a...