Bioresponsive hydrogels for self forming tissue regeneration : shaped, scaffold-free grafts for articular cartilage defects

The goal of this project is to fabricate a customized framework (scaffold) -free graft with certain shape for potential application into cartilage defects. This is accomplished by means of a temporary scaffold with seeded chondrocytes which is followed by in vivo implantation of the neo tissue into the defect after chemical removal of the scaffold. Alginate is a large group of polyanionic co-polymers made up of α-L-guluronic (G) and 1,4-linked β-D mannuronic(M) acid monomers. Before gelation, alginate is soluble in water; gelation will happen if bivalent cations like Ba2+ and Ca2+ are present in solution. The gelation process is reversible. It is reported that purified alginate/Ca2+ gel can be a biocompatible platform for cell culture. Chondrocytes will maintain original phenotype and express specific gene markers. In addition. alginate has been a choice of substrates for chondrocyte culture before the cells could be seeded on the intended scaffold. Furthermore, alginate has recently been used for scaffolding, demonstrating high potential for the material in tissue engineering. On the basis of these benefits, we aim to try using alginate as a hydrogel scaffold for self-forming tissue regeneration using the novel strategy of phase transfer cell culture (PTCC) driven by the newly designed micro-cavity gel (MCG).Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering