Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Cartilage tissue engineering

Our lab has demonstrated that adult stem cells isolated from synovial joints can be used to tissue engineer functional cartilage grafts (https://doi.org/10.1089/ten.tea.2011.0544), especially when combined with bioreactors to mechanically stimulate these cells (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.12.006). We have demonstrated that it is possible to engineer zonal tissues such as articular cartilage by recapitulating the gradients in regulatory signals that during development and skeletal maturation are believed to drive spatial changes in stem cell differentiation and tissue organization (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060764). Realising this required undertaking a series of fundamental studies to understand how chondrogenesis, hypertrophy and endochondral ossification is regulated by altered levels of oxygen (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.11.105) and mechanical cues (10.22203/ecm.v023a09). In recent years we are increasingly using emerging 3D (bio)printing strategies to engineer more functional articular cartilage grafts (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121405).

Example Project: : https://x.com/dannykelly1978/status/1496517554352922632?s=20