Electrospun Nanofibrous Meshes Cultured With Wharton’s Jelly Stem Cell: An Alternative for Cartilage Regeneration, Without the Need of Growth Factors

Many efforts are being directed worldwide to the treatment of OA-focal lesions.
The majority of those efforts comprise either the refinement of surgical
techniques or combinations of biomaterials with various autologous cells.
Herein, we tested electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous meshes for
cartilage tissue engineering. For that, articular chondrocytes (hACs) isolated
from human osteoarthritic joints and Wharton’s Jelly Stem Cells (hWJSCs) are
cultured on electrospun nanofiber meshes, without adding external growth
factors. We observed higher glycosaminoglycans production and higher overexpression
of cartilage-related genes from hWJSCs cultured with basal medium,
when compared to hACs isolated from osteoarthritic joints. Moreover, the
presence of sulfated proteoglycans and collagen type II is observed on both
types of cell cultures. We believe that this effect is due to either the electrospun
nanofibers topography or the intrinsic chondrogenic differentiation potential of
hWJSCs. Therefore, we propose the electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds in
combination with hWJSCs as a viable alternative to the commercial membranes
used in autologous chondrogenic regeneration approaches.