Biomechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage from human and rabbit chondrocytes.

Park, Stephen S; Chi, David H; Lee, Arnold S; Taylor, S Ray; Iezzoni, Julia C · Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · 2002

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

To describe tissue-engineered cartilage from rabbit and human chondrocytes. Chondrocytes from rabbit and human ears were seeded onto a template and implanted for 8 or 16 weeks of in vivo incubation. For the 8-week and 16-week groups, the UTS for cartilage was 3.8 MPa and 3.7 MPa, stiffness was 62.4 MPa and 51.8 MPa, and resilience was 181.8 J/m(3) and 109.1 J/m(3), respectively. Experimental cartilage was significantly different from controls. From 5 human specimens, the UTS was 5.4 MPa, stiffness was 6.6 MPa, and resilience was 2.0 J/m(3). The control had UTS of 8.8 MPa, stiffness of 12.2 MPa, and resilience of 2.9 J/m(3). Histology showed mature cartilage but with a fibrovascular infiltrate and increased cellularity. Mechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage can be quantified and are less than that of controls.

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