Articular Cartilage Lesions: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Treatment

Summary

Cell tech is a team of chemical engineers whose aim is to produce suitable repair methods for defects and injuries in the knee by using tissue engineering with internally produced hydrogels. The target of this report is to explain a selected process for hydrogel scaffold repair. The selected hydrogel and cell type as well as the optimum culture conditions and the time taken for the correct amount of cells to be produced for the required application will be explained. Furthermore the details on how to enhance the mass transfer properties will be discussed as well as the maximum tissue size can be produced before cell necrosis. Finally bioreactor types will be discussed and the best bioreactor will be chosen for the application with methods on how the bioreactor will optimise and measure the mechanical properties of the created tissue to ensure that that it matches the real tissue to be replaced.

1.0 Introduction

Regenerative medicine is a growing industry focusing on the growth of human cells, tissues and organs. One of the main aspects of regenerative medicine is tissue engineering where in this field many different disciplines such as materials, scientist, engineers and biologists are brought together. These people will be using cells to recreate tissue such as skin, bone and even complete organs (Bock, et al., 2003).

Tissue engineering has been known to be the application of principles and methods of engineering and life sciences toward fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal pathologic mammalian tissues and development of biological substitutes to restore, maintain or improve tissue functions. Tissue engineering in articular cartilage has received a lot attention because a living tissue replacement used as a solution for damaged cartilage and arthritic joints which provide a long term solution(Yuan & Shu, 2001).

2.0 Cartilage, Cell Type and Hydrogel Selection

2.1Cartilage

Cartilage exist throughout human body and they can be described as one of three different categories which are listed below: (Jacoby & Youngson, 2004)

Hyaline Cartilage

Fibrocartilage

Elastic Cartilage

The cartilage that will be focused on this report will be the articular cartilage which is also known as the hyaline cartilage.

Articular cartilage is the specialized organ which covers the ends of diarthrodial joints. The composition of articular cartilage is listed below: (Jacoby & Youngson, 2004)

<5% chondrocytes

85% interstitial fluid

5% type II collagen

5%