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Engineering cartilage with human nasal chondrocytes and a silanized hydroxypropyl methylcellulose hydrogel
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International audience. Abstract Tissue engineering strategies, based on developing three‐dimensional scaffolds capable of transferring autologous chondrogenic cells, holds promise for the restoration of damaged cartilage. In this study, the authors aimed at determining whether a recently developed silanized hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (Si‐HPMC) hydrogel can be a suitable scaffold for human nasal chondrocytes (HNC)‐based cartilage engineering. Methyltetrazolium salt assay and cell counting experiments first revealed that Si‐HPMC enabled the proliferation of HNC. Cell tracker green staining further demonstrated that HNC were able to form nodular structures in this three‐dimensional scaffold. HNC phenotype was then assessed by RT‐PCR analysis of type II collagen and aggrecan expression as well as alcian blue staining of extracellular matrix. Our data indicated that Si‐HPMC allowed the maintenance and the recovery of a chondrocytic phenotype. The ability of constructs HNC/Si‐HPMC to form a cartilaginous tissue in vivo was finally investigated after 3 weeks of implantation in subcutaneous pockets of nude mice. Histological examination of the engineered constructs revealed the formation of a cartilage‐like tissue with an extracellular matrix containing glycosaminoglycans and type II collagen. The whole of these results demonstrate that Si‐HPMC hydrogel associated to HNC is a convenient approach for cartilage tissue engineering. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2007