Co-culture-based Osteochondral Tissue Engineering

Abstract

The regeneration of whole osteochondral constructs with a physiological structure has been a significant issue, both clinically and academically. An optimal method that can regenerate multilayered tissue structure is needed. In this study, several co-culture methods were designed and investigated their effectiveness for generating the osteochondral interface and multilayered structure in vitro. Rabbit bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and silk/RADA peptide scaffold were used in this study. The study was grouped into four stages: (i) design and development of the scaffold and osteochondral interface formation by 2D-3D co-culture system, (ii) development 3D-3D co-culture system, (iii) the development of static co-culture wells, and (iv) three-chamber bioreactor. Result revealed that osteogenic BMSCs/osteoblasts and chondrogenic BMSCs affected each other in this co-culture system and induced the formation of the osteochondral interface. Moreover, this system provided a possible approach for generating multilayered osteochondral constructs.