Evaluation of Hydrostatic Pressure on Metabolism of the Articular
Chondrocytes Seeded on Biodegradable Polyurethane as Tissue
Engineering Scaffold
Saeed Karbasi
1. Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical
Science, Isfahan, Iran.
One of the most effective parameters in articular cartilage tissue engineering is cell
stimulation and growth. Using a reaction system which incorporates many of the same
conditions as an articulating joint such as intermittent loading, long term culture and a suitable
3-D growth environment could stimulate chondrocytes metabolism. It has demonstrated that
hydrostatic pressure, as a physicochemical parameter, also could increase chondrocytes
metabolism in tissue constructs. In this research, the effect of hydrostatic pressure was
investigated on lactate production and GAG (glycosaminoglycane) content produced by
chondrocytes. The isolated chondrocytes, from animal joint, were seeded on a biodegradable
polyesterurethane scaffold (BPUS) namely Degrapol® and 4 MPa was applied to the samples
for 4 h per day as a cyclic (1HZ, Sinusoidal) load. The results showed that in constant
physicochemical conditions, the hydrostatic pressure could increase the amount of lactate, rate
of lactate production and GAG as a significant cartilage metabolism on BPUS. In comparison
to other biodegradable polymers, this research was showed that BPUS has great potential for
articular cartilage tissue engineering, in vitro.
Keywords: Hydrostatic Pressure, Biodegradable polyesterurethane, Articular Cartilage, Tissue Engineering,
Chondrocytes