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The limited intrinsic self-healing capability of articular cartilage requires treatment of
cartilage defects. Material assisted and cell based therapies are in clinical practice but
tend to result in formation of mechanical inferior fibro-cartilage in long term follow up. If
a lesion has not been properly restored degenerative diseases are diagnosed as late sequela
causing pain and loss in morbidity. Complex three dimensional tissue models mimicking
physiological situation allow investigation of cartilage metabolism and mechanisms involved
in repair. A standardized and reproducible model cultured under controllable conditions
ex vivo to maintain tissue properties is of relevance for comparable studies.
Topic of this thesis was the establishment of an cartilage defect model that allows for
testing novel biomaterials and investigate the effect of defined defect depths on formation
of repair tissue.
In part I an ex vivo osteochondral defect model was established based on isolation of
porcine osteochondral explants (OCE) from medial condyles, 8 mm in diameter and 5 mm
in height. Full thickness cartilage defects with 1 mm to 4 mm in diameter were created
to define ex vivo cartilage critical size after 28 days culture with custom developed static
culture device. In part II of this thesis hydrogel materials, namely collagen I isolated from
rat tail, commercially available fibrin glue, matrix-metalloproteinase clevable poly(ethylene
glycol) polymerized with heparin (starPEGh), methacrylated poly(N-(2-hydroxypropyl)
methacrylamide mono-dilactate-poly(ethylene glycol) triblock copolymer/methacrylated
hyaluronic acid (MP/HA), thiol functionalized HA/allyl functionalized poly(glycidol)
(P(AGE/G)-HA-SH), were tested cell free and chondrocyte loaded (20 mio/ml) as implant
in 4 mm cartilage defects to investigate cartilage regeneration. Reproducible chondral
defects, 8 mm in diameter and 1 mm in height, were generated with an artificial tissue
cutter (ARTcut®) to investigate effect of defect depth on defect regeneration in part III.
In all approaches OCE were analyzed by Safranin-O staining to visualize proteoglycans
in cartilage and/or hydrogels. Immuno-histological and -fluorescent stainings (aggrecan,
collagen II, VI and X, proCollagen I, SOX9, RUNX2), gene expression analysis (aggrecan,
collagen II and X, SOX9, RUNX2) of chondrocyte loaded hydrogels (part II) and proteoglycan
and DNA content (Part I & II) were performed for detailed analysis of cartilage
regeneration.
Part I: The development of custom made static culture device, consisting of inserts in which OCE is fixed and deep well plate, allowed tissue specific media supply without
supplementation of TGF . Critical size diameter was defined to be 4 mm.
Part II: Biomaterials revealed differences in cartilage regeneration. Collagen I and fibrin
glue showed presence of cells migrated from OCE into cell free hydrogels with indication
of fibrous tissue formation by presence of proCollagen I. In chondrocyte loaded study
cartilage matrix proteins aggrecan, collagen II and VI and transcription factor SOX9 were
detected after ex vivo culture throughout the two natural hydrogels collagen I and fibrin
glue whereas markers were localized in pericellular matrix in starPEGh. Weak stainings resulted
for MP/HA and P(AGE/G)-HA-SH in some cell clusters. Gene expression data and
proteoglycan quantification supported histological findings with tendency of hypertrophy
indicated by upregulation of collagen X and RunX2 in MP/HA and P(AGE/G)-HA-SH.
Part III: In life-dead stainings recruitment of cells from OCE into empty or cell free
collagen I treated chondral defects was seen.
Separated and tissue specific media supply is critical to maintain ECM composition in
cartilage. Presence of OCE stimulates cartilage matrix synthesis in chondrocyte loaded
collagen I hydrogel and reduces hypertrophy compared to free swelling conditions and
pellet cultures. Differences in cartilage repair tissue formation resulted in preference of
natural derived polymers compared to synthetic based materials. The ex vivo cartilage
defect model represents a platform for testing novel hydrogels as cartilage materials, but
also to investigate the effect of cell seeding densities, cell gradients, cell co-cultures on
defect regeneration dependent on defect depth. The separated media compartments allow
for systematic analysis of pharmaceutics, media components or inflammatory cytokines on
bone and cartilage metabolism and matrix stability.
The basement membrane separates the epithelium from the stroma of any given barrier tissue and is essential in regulating cellular behavior, as mechanical barrier and as structural support. It further plays an important role for new tissue formation, homeostasis, and pathological processes, such as diabetes or cancer. Breakdown of the basement membrane is believed to be essential for tumor invasion and metastasization. Since the basement membrane is crucial for many body functions, the development of artificial basement membranes is indispensable for the ultimate formation of engineered functional tissue, however, challenging due to their complex structure.
Electrospinning enables the production of fibers in the nano- or microscale range with morphological similarities to the randomly orientated collagen and elastic fibers in the basement membrane. However, electrospun fibers often lack the functional similarity to guide cells and maintain tissue-specific functions. Hence, their possible applications as matrix structure for tissue engineering are limited.
Herein, the potential of polyester meshes, modified with six armed star-shaped pre-polymers and cell-adhesion-mediating peptides, was evaluated to act as functional isotropic and bipolar artificial basement membranes. Thereby, the meshes were shown to be biocompatible and stable including under dynamic conditions, and the degradation profile to correlate with the rate of new tissue formation. The different peptide sequences did not influence the morphology and integrity of the fibers. The modified membranes exhibited protein-repellent properties over 12 months, indicating the long-term stability of the cross-linked star-polymer surfaces.
Cell culture experiments with primary fibroblasts and a human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) revealed that cell adhesion and growth strongly depends on the peptide sequences and their combinations employed. HaCaT cells grew to confluence on membranes modified with a combination of laminin/collagen type IV derived binding sequences and with a combination of fibronectin/laminin/collagen type IV derived peptide sequences. Fibroblasts strongly adhered to the fibronectin derived binding sequence and to membranes containing a combination of fibronectin/laminin/collagen type IV derived peptide sequences. The adhesion and growth of fibroblasts and HaCaT cells were significantly reduced on membranes modified with laminin, as well as collagen IV derived peptide sequences. HaCaT cells and fibroblasts barely adhered onto meshes without peptide sequences.
Co-culture experiments at the air-liquid interface with fibroblasts and HaCaT cells confirmed the possibility of creating biocompatible, biofunctional and biomimetic isotropic and bipolar basement membranes, based on the functionalized fibers. HaCaT cells grew in several layers, differentiating towards the surface and expressing cytokeratin 10 in the suprabasal and cytokeratin 14 in the basal layers. Migration of fibroblasts into the electrospun membrane was shown by vimentin staining. Moreover, specific staining against laminin type V, collagen type I, III, IV and fibronectin illustrated that cells started to remodel the electrospun membrane and produced new extracellular matrix proteins following the adhesion to the synthetic surface structures.
The culturing of primary human skin keratinocytes proved to be difficult on electrospun fibers. Cells attached to the membrane, but failed to form a multilayered, well-stratified, and keratinized epidermal layer. Changing the fiber composition and fixation methods did not promote tissue development. Further investigations of the membrane demonstrated the tremendous influence of the pore size of the membrane on epithelial formation. Furthermore, primary keratinocytes reacted more sensitive to pH changes in the medium than HaCaT cells did.
Since primary keratinocytes did not adequately develop on the functionalized meshes, polycarbonate membranes were used instead of electrospun meshes to establish oral mucosa models. The tissue-engineered models represented important features of native human oral mucosa. They consisted of a multilayered epithelium with stratum basale, stratum spinosum, stratum granulosum, and stratum corneum. The models formed a physical barrier and the expression of characteristic cell markers was comparable with that in native human oral mucosa. The results from the ET-50 assay and the irritation study reflected the reproducibility of the tissue equivalents.
Altogether, electrospinning enables the production of fibers with structural similarity to the basement membrane. Incorporating extracellular matrix components to mimic the functional composition offers a safe and promising way to modify the fibers so that they can be used for different tissue engineering applications. The resultant biomimetic membranes that can be functionalized with binding sequences derived from widely varying proteins can be used as a toolbox to study the influence of isotropic and bipolar basement membranes on tissue formation and matrix remodeling systematically, with regards to the biochemical composition and the influence and importance of mono- and co-culture. The oral mucosa models may be useful for toxicity and permeation studies, to monitor the irritation potential of oral health care products and biomaterials or as a disease model.
Site Directed Immobilization of BMP-2: Two Approaches for the Production of Osteoinductive Scaffolds
(2017)
Bone fractures typically heal without surgical intervention. However, pathological situations exist which impede the healing process resulting in so-called non-union fractures. Such fractures are nowadays treated with scaffold material being introduced into the defect area. These scaffolds can be doped with osteogenic factors, such as bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)2. BMP2 belongs to the most osteogenic growth factors known to date. Its medical use, efficiency and safety have been approved by FDA for certain applications. Currently, BMP2 is distributed with a stabilizing scaffold, which is simply soaked with the growth factor. Due to fast release kinetics supraphysiological high doses of BMP2 are required which are causally associated with severe side effects observed in certain applications being most harmful in the area of the cervical spine. These side-effects include inflammation, swelling and breathing problems, leading to disastrous consequences or secondary surgical interventions. Since it could be shown that a retardation of BMP2 release from the scaffold resulted in superior bone forming properties in vivo, it seems obvious to further reduce this release to a minimum. This can be achieved by covalent coupling which in the past was already elaborated using mainly classical EDC/NHS chemistry. Using this technique coupling of the protein occurs non-site-directedly leading mainly to an unpredictable product outcome with variable osteogenic activities. In order to improve the reproducibility of scaffold functionalization by BMP2 we created variants one of which contains a unique unnatural amino acid substitution within the mature polypeptide sequence (BMP2-K3Plk) and another, BMP2-A2C, in which an N-terminal alanine has been substituted by cysteine. These modifications enable site-specific and covalent immobilization of BMP2 e.g. onto polymeric beads. Both proteins were expressed in E. coli, renatured and purified by cation-exchange chromatography. Both variants were extensively analyzed in terms of purity and biological activity which was tested by in vitro interaction analyses as well as in cell based assays. Both proteins could be successfully coupled to polymeric beads. The different BMP2 functionalized beads were shown to interact with the ectodomain of the type I receptor BMPR-IA in vitro indicating that the biological activity of both BMP2 variants retained upon coupling. Both functionalized beads induced osteogenic differentiation C2C12 cells but only of those cells which have been in close contact to the particular beads. This strongly indicates that the BMP2 variant are indeed covalently coupled and not just adsorbed.
We claim that we have developed a system for a site-specific and covalent immobilization of BMP-2 onto solid scaffolds, potentially eliminating the necessity of high-dose scaffold loading. Since immobilized proteins are protected from removal by extracellular fluids, their activities now rely mainly on the half-life of the used scaffold and the rate of proteolytic degradation. Assuming that due to prolonged times much lower loading capacities might be required we propose that the immobilization strategy employed in this work may be further refined and optimized to replace the currently used BMP2-containing medical products.