Tissue Engineering of Bovine Articular Cartilage Within Porous Poly(ether Ester) Copolymer Scaffolds with Different Structures

The potential of porous poly(ether ester) scaffolds made from poly(ethylene glycol) terephthalate: poly(butylene terephthalate) (PEGT:PBT) block copolymers produced by various methods to enable cartilaginous tissue formation in vitro was studied. Scaffolds were fabricated by two different processes: paraffin templating (PT) and compression molding (CM). To determine whether PEGT:PBT scaffolds are able to support chondrogenesis, primary bovine chondrocytes were seeded within cylindrical scaffolds under dynamic seeding conditions. On day 3, constructs were transferred to six-well plates and evaluated for glycosaminoglycan (GAG) distribution (3, 10, and 24 days), type II collagen distribution, cellularity, and total collagen and GAG content (10 and 24 days). It was observed that better cell distribution during infiltration within PT scaffolds allowed greater chondrogenesis, and at later time points, than in CM scaffolds. The amount of GAG remained constant for all groups from 10 to 24 days, whereas collagen content increased significantly. These data suggest that PEGT:PBT scaffolds are suitable for cartilage tissue engineering, with the PT process enabling greater chondrogenesis than CM.