Nanofibrous Wharton's jelly scaffold in combination with adipose-derived stem cells for cartilage engineering

Abstract

The tissue engineering of cartilage represents a promising approach for cartilage repair, and the process includes cells, growth factors, and a scaffold. The scaffold is important for supporting, reinforcing, and organizing the regenerating tissue. Currently, Wharton's jelly (WJ) is considered an ideal scaffold material for cartilage tissue engineering because it has a similar composition, structure, and function as cartilage tissue. Here, we fabricated electrospun nanofibers composed of a decellularized WJ matrix reinforced by poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and investigated the feasibility of a nanofibrous WJ/PCL scaffold with adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) for use in cartilage regeneration. WJ was decellularized and then electrospun with PCL to form a WJ/PCL scaffold. The results indicated that the WJ/PCL scaffold possessed appropriate mechanical properties, suitable biodegradation, excellent hydrophilicity, increased adherence rate, low immunological reactivity, and good biocompatibility when compared with pure WJ or pure PCL scaffolds. Importantly, the WJ/PCL scaffold showed chondroconductive capabilities with ASC in vitro culture for 4 weeks. Our findings demonstrated that electrospun nanofibrous WJ/PCL is an appropriate scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering.