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Abstract
Injuries to the avascular regions of the meniscus fail to heal and so are treated
by resection of the damaged tissue. This alleviates symptoms but fails to restore
normal load transmission in the knee. Tissue engineering functional meniscus constructs
for re-implantation may improve tissue repair. While numerous studies have developed
scaffolds for meniscus repair, the most appropriate autologous cell source remains
to be determined. In this study, we hypothesized that the debris generated from common
meniscectomy procedures would possess cells with potential for forming replacement
tissue. We also hypothesized that donor age and the disease status would influence
the ability of derived cells to generate functional, fibrocartilaginous matrix.
Meniscus derived cells (MDCs) were isolated from waste tissue of 10 human donors (seven
partial meniscectomies and three total knee arthroplasties) ranging in age from 18
to 84 years. MDCs were expanded in monolayer culture through passage 2 and seeded
onto fiber-aligned biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds and cultured in a chemically
defined media. Mechanical properties, biochemical content, and histological features
were evaluated over 10 weeks of culture.
Results demonstrated that cells from every donor contributed to increasing biochemical
content and mechanical properties of engineered constructs. Significant variability
was observed in outcome parameters (cell infiltration, proteoglycan and collagen content,
and mechanical properties) amongst donors, but these variations did not correlate
with patient age or disease condition. Strong correlations were observed between the
amount of collagen deposition within the construct and the tensile properties achieved.
In scaffolds seeded with particularly robust cells, construct tensile moduli approached
maxima of approximately 40 MPa over the 10-week culture period.
This study demonstrates that cells derived from surgical debris are a potent cell
source for engineered meniscus constructs. Results further show that robust growth
is possible in MDCs from middle-aged and elderly patients, highlighting the potential
for therapeutic intervention using autologous cells.