Native, living tissues as cell seeded scaffolds

The Application of Bioreactors for Cartilage Tissue Engineering: Advances, Limitations, and Future Perspectives

Tissue engineering (TE) has brought new hope for articular cartilage regeneration, as TE can provide structural and functional substitutes for native tissues. The basic elements of TE involve scaffolds, seeded cells, and biochemical and biomechanical stimuli. However, there are some limitations of TE; what most important is that static cell culture on scaffolds cannot simulate the physiological environment required for the development of natural cartilage. Recently, bioreactors have been used to simulate the physical and mechanical environment during the development of articular cartilage. This review aims to provide an overview of the concepts, categories, and applications of bioreactors for cartilage TE with emphasis on the design of various bioreactor systems.

Contribution of Implanted, Genetically Modified Muscle Progenitor Cells Expressing BMP-2 to New Bone Formation in a Rat Osseous Defect

Because muscle contains osteoprogenitor cells and has a propensity to form bone, we have explored its utility in healing large osseous defects. Healing is achieved by the insertion of muscle fragments transduced with adenovirus encoding BMP-2 (Ad.BMP-2). However, it is not known whether the genetically modified muscle contributes osteoprogenitor cells to healing defects or merely serves as a local source of BMP-2. This question is part of the larger debate on the fate of progenitor cells introduced into sites of tissue damage to promote regeneration. To address this issue, we harvested fragments of muscle from rats constitutively expressing GFP, transduced them with Ad.BMP-2, and implanted them into femoral defects in wild-type rats under various conditions. GFP⁺ cells persisted within defects for the entire 8 weeks of the experiments. In the absence of bone formation, these cells presented as fibroblasts. When bone was formed, GFP⁺ cells were present as osteoblasts and osteocytes and also among the lining cells of new blood vessels. The genetically modified muscle thus contributed progenitor cells as well as BMP-2 to the healing defect, a property of great significance in light of the extensive damage to soft tissue and consequent loss of endogenous progenitors in problematic fractures.

Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration: From Cell-Based Therapies to Decellularised Engineered Extracellular Matrices

Currently, autologous bone grafting represents the clinical gold standard in orthopaedic surgery. In certain cases, however, alternative techniques are required. The clinical utility of stem and stromal cells has been demonstrated for the repair and regeneration of craniomaxillofacial and long bone defects although clinical adoption of bone tissue engineering protocols has been very limited. Initial tissue engineering studies focused on the bone marrow as a source of cells for bone regeneration, and while a number of promising results continue to emerge, limitations to this technique have prompted the exploration of alternative cell sources, including adipose and muscle tissue. In this review paper we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cell sources with a focus on adipose tissue and the bone marrow. Additionally, we highlight the relatively recent paradigm of developmental engineering, which promotes the recapitulation of naturally occurring developmental processes to allow the implant to optimally respond to endogenous cues. Finally we examine efforts to apply lessons from studies into different cell sources and developmental approaches to stimulate bone growth by use of decellularised hypertrophic cartilage templates.