Regenerated Silk Fibroin-Based Meniscal Scaffold with Increased Suturability

The management of meniscus lesions in the clinics favors the meniscal repair if possible or substitution with scaffolds [1-3]. The implantation success of a meniscal scaffold depend on its suturability. Regenerated salt-leached silk fibroin scaffolds are not suturable. This work reports the production and characterization a novel silk fibroin scaffold which has a zone of layered 3D-printed polycaprolactone mesh between the silk fibroin zones to increase the suture retention strength up to four times, and high water uptake capacity more than five times. In vivo biocompatibility of the scaffolds that seeded with human fat pad-derived stem cells or human meniscocytes was studied using a subcutaneous implantation model in mice. Micro-CT was used to evaluate the architecture of the explants. The histological analysis indicated that new tissue infiltration and blood vessel formation occur in the scaffolds. The results of the current study are promising, and further studies should further evaluate their in vivo performance using an orthotopic model. Acknowledgments: The authors thank the project FROnTHERA (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund. This study was also supported by the FP7 Marie Curie project (MRTN-CT-2011-289897). IFC and JMO thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support SFRH/BD/99555/2014 and IF/01285/2015. References 1.Cengiz I.F. et al. J. of Experimental Orthopaedics, 5(1), (2018) 14. 2.Cengiz, I.F. et al. Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine 3.1 (2017): 32-50. 3.Pereira, H. et al. EFORT Open Reviews 4.6 (2019): 279-295.