DECELLULARIZED PLANT SCAFFOLDS FOR CARTILAGE TISSUE ENGINEERING

Cartilage is a load-bearing connective tissue with a limited self-healing capacity due to lack of blood vessels and innervation. Cartilage damage can occur from both trauma and degenerative joint diseases and current therapeutic options are mostly limited to symptom relief. Therefore, cartilage tissue engineering applications gain an importance to develop novel scaffolds for cartilage repair and regeneration. In this thesis, cellulose-based scaffolds from decellularized plants were investigated for cartilage tissue engineering applications. Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) was chosen since its pore structure and mechanical properites can mimic the native articular cartilage. First, the decellularization procedure was optimized for Lucky Bamboo samples. Second, material properties including pore structure, mechanical properties under compression and swelling behavior were characterized before and after decellularization to demonstrate the changes in scaffolds. Finally, decellularized Lucky Bamboo scaffolds were investigated for chondrocyte (cartilage-forming cells) culture up to 8 weeks. Cell adhesion and proliferation as well extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation in decellularized Lucky Bamboo scaffolds were investigated with biochemical assays, histological and immunohistochemical methods. After 8 weeks of culture, a significant increase in cell proliferation throughout the scaffolds and significant production of collagen type II and aggrecan which are the most prevalent molecules of native cartilage tissue were observed. As a result, decellularized Lucky Bamboo scaffolds provided a three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for the chondrocytes since the pore structure and mechanical properties can mimic the native cartilage tissue and promoted the production of ECM proteins and glycosaminoglycans from the cells.