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Melgar-Lesmes P, Bosch O, Zubajlo R, Molins G, Comfort S, Luque-Saavedra A, López-Moya M, García-Polite F, Parri Ferrandis FJ, Rogers C, Gelabertó A, Martorell J, Edelman ER, Balcells M. Optimization of 3D autologous chondrocyte-seeded polyglycolic acid scaffolds to mimic human ear cartilage. Biomater Sci 2023; 11:3695-3708. [PMID: 37022673 DOI: 10.1039/d3bm00035d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/07/2023]
Abstract
Auricular reconstruction in children with microtia is one of the more complex procedures in plastic surgery. Obtaining sufficient native material to build an ear requires harvesting large fragments of rib cartilage in children. Herein, we investigated how to optimize autologous chondrocyte isolation, expansion and re-implantation using polyglycolic acid (PGA) scaffolds for generating enough cartilage to recapitulate a whole ear starting from a small ear biopsy. Ear chondrocytes isolated from human microtia subjects grew slower than microtia rib or healthy ear chondrocytes and displayed a phenotypic shift due to the passage number. Rabbit ear chondrocytes co-cultured with mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) at a 50 : 50 ratio recapitulated the cartilage biological properties in vitro. However, PGA scaffolds with different proportions of rabbit chondrocytes and MSC did not grow substantially in two months when subcutaneously implanted in immunosuppressed mice. In contrast, rabbit chondrocyte-seeded PGA scaffolds implanted in immunocompetent rabbits formed a cartilage 10 times larger than the original PGA scaffold. This cartilage mimicked the biofunctional and mechanical properties of an ear cartilage. These results indicate that autologous chondrocyte-seeded PGA scaffolds fabricated following our optimized procedure have immense potential as a solution for obtaining enough cartilage for auricular reconstruction and opens new avenues to redefine autologous cartilage replacement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pedro Melgar-Lesmes
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedicine, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Service, Hospital Clínic Universitari, IDIBAPS, CIBERehd, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Oriol Bosch
- Bioengineering Department, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Ramon Llull Univ, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rebecca Zubajlo
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Gemma Molins
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Sofia Comfort
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Ainara Luque-Saavedra
- Bioengineering Department, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Ramon Llull Univ, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mario López-Moya
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Fernando García-Polite
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | | | | | | | - Jordi Martorell
- Bioengineering Department, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Ramon Llull Univ, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elazer R Edelman
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mercedes Balcells
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of, Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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