The assessment of natural scaffolds ability in chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells

The ability of cartilage to repair damage is limited due to lack of blood vessels and low cell density. Recently, tissue engineering is considerably preferred to other treatments as a way to solve this problem. Regardless of cell sources, one of the crucial factors in tissue engineering is to select an appropriate scaffold, which is essential for healing and renewal procedure of tissues in vivo and in vitro . Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were isolated from adipose tissue in liposuction surgeries by use of collagenase enzyme. After verification by flow cytometry methods, adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) were embedded into alginate and agarose scaffolds, separately; and then they were cultured in chondrogenic medium for 3 weeks. The ability of alginate and agarose scaffolds was assessed by use of MTT assay and histological analysis. In addition, analysis of chondrogenic genes expression by Real-time PCR was done. The obtained data were analyzed statistically by means of SPSS software. There was a significant difference between alginate and agarose groups in maintaining cells viable but, about chondrogenic differentiation analyzed by use of real-time PCR, statistical analysis has shown a significant difference in expression of aggrecan (as a chondrocyte-specific gene) and collagen II (as an chondrocyte-specific gene) between cell/alginate and cell/agarose and MSCs (p<0.05). Chondrocyte differentiation of cells was verified by histological analysis. Alginate scaffold can provide a suitable environment for chondrogenic differentiation of  adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. Keywords: Alginate; Agarose; Chondrogenic differentiation; Mesenchymal stem cell; Tissue engineering