A novel hydrogel helps regenerate knee cartilage
An international team of scientists, led by scientists from the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA), has designed a hydrogel, thanks to the innovative and pioneering polymer microarray technology, which helps to successfully regenerate cartilage.
The researchers evaluated the adhesion capacity and viability of healthy chondrocytes (cartilage cells) extracted from patients with knee osteoarthritis (osteoarthritis) on 380 different polymers of polyacrylate and polyurethane. Of these 380 polymers, they selected the 10 that presented the best properties to facilitate the adhesion and viability of this specific cell type, and carried out studies to evaluate the ability of these 10 polymers to maintain the potential of chondrocytes to produce cartilage matrix in cultures. long-term.
El poly polymer (methylmethacrylate-co-methacrylate) was the one that showed better biological and chemical characteristics, so it was used to synthesize hydrogels to be used as 3D matrices. The analysis and characterization of the ultra-structural morphology, the microstructure, and the mechanical tests of this new hydrogel showed that it had the adequate characteristics to generate a support that mimics the environment that the chondrocytes need in the cartilage.
Furthermore, the biological characterization of this material showed that is able to generate the appropriate niche for the growth in number of chondrocytes keeping their characteristics intact in long-term culture in the laboratory. This was demonstrated by the high expression of characteristic chondrogenesis genes such as type 2 collagen, Sox9 and aggrecan. In addition, these chondrocytes proliferated colonizing the entire hydrogel and produced an extracellular matrix rich in proteoglycans, similar to the matrix produced in native cartilage.
Subsequent studies in mice have confirmed the great potential of this polyacrylate. The implantation of the hydrogel in immunocompetent mice demonstrated that the material is fully biocompatible, and does not generate any rejection by the body. Furthermore, the mouse cells colonized the hydrogel and secreted extracellular matrix. On the other hand, the implantation of the hydrogel that had previously been in culture with chondrocytes of the patients for 21 days, showed that, after being recovered from the mice, chondrocytes maintained their viability, proliferated, expressed chondrogenesis genes and produced the typical cartilage matrix mentioned above.
«It is for all this that the poly hydrogel (methylmethacrylate-co-methacrylate) has structural characteristics, mechanical and biological properties that allow to generate a replacement tissue similar to healthy cartilage. Therefore, we propose this new material as an excellent candidate for cartilage regeneration, and thus overcome the limitations of current scaffold-based approaches for the treatment of osteoarthritis", explains the first author of this work, the head of the group of research TEC16 "Advanced Therapies: differentiation, regeneration and cancer" of the ibs.GRANADA and professor of Anatomy and Human Embryology of the UGR, Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales.
This study has been carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists made up of researchers from different national and international institutions, such as the University of Edinburgh, the 3B's Research Group of the University of Minho, the University of Jaén and the University Hospital Virgen de la Victoria de Málaga, all of them led by researchers from the "Advanced Therapies: Differentiation, Regeneration and Cancer" group at the University of Granada, belonging to the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) and the "ModelingNature Unit of Excellence : from nano to macro »from the UGR.