The Chondrogenic Induction Potential for Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells between Autologous Platelet-Rich Plasma and Common Chondrogenic Induction Agents: A Preliminary Comparative Study

Cell penetration and chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose derived stem cells on 3D scaffold

The ability of cells to penetrate the scaffold and differentiate into chondrocyte is important in cartilage engineering. The aim of this research was to evaluate the use of silk fibroin 3D scaffold in facilitating the growth of stem cell and to study the role of L-ascorbic acid and platelet rich plasma (PRP) in proliferation and differentiation genes. Cell penetration and type II collagen content in the silk fibroin scaffold was analyzed by confocal microscopy. Relative expressions of CDH2, CCND1, CTNNB1 and COL2A1 were analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The silk fibroin 3D scaffold could facilitate cell penetration. L-ascorbic acid and PRP increased the expression of CDH2 and COL2A1 on the 21st day of treatment while PRP inhibited CTNNB1 and CCND1.

Platelet-rich concentrate in serum-free medium enhances cartilage-specific extracellular matrix synthesis and reduces chondrocyte hypertrophy of human mesenchymal stromal cells encapsulated in alginate

Platelet-rich concentrate (PRC), used in conjunction with other chondroinductive growth factors, have been shown to induce chondrogenesis of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC) in pellet culture. However, pellet culture systems promote cell hypertrophy and the presence of other chondroinductive growth factors in the culture media used in previous studies obscures accurate determination of the effect of platelet itself in inducing chondrogenic differentiation. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the effect of PRC alone in enhancing the chondrogenic differentiation potential of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC) encapsulated in three-dimensional alginate constructs. Cells encapsulated in alginate were cultured in serum-free medium supplemented with only 15% PRC. Scanning electron microscopy was used to determine the cell morphology. Chondrogenic molecular signature of hMSCs was determined by quantitative real-time PCR and verified at protein levels via immunohistochemistry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results showed that the cells cultured in the presence of PRC for 24 days maintained a chondrocytic phenotype and demonstrated minimal upregulation of cartilaginous extracellular matrix (ECM) marker genes (SOX9, TNC, COL2, ACAN, COMP) and reduced expression of chondrocyte hypertrophy genes (Col X, Runx2) compared to the standard chondrogenic medium (p < 0.05). PRC group had correspondingly higher levels of glycosaminoglycan and increased concentration of chondrogenic specific proteins (COL2, ACAN, COMP) in the ECM. In conclusion, PRC alone appears to be very potent in inducing chondrogenic differentiation of hMSCs and offers additional benefit of suppressing chondrocyte hypertrophy, rendering it a promising approach for providing abundant pool of chondrogenic MSCs for application in cartilage tissue engineering.