A research group at Tokyo University of Science has developed a new hydrogel (a network formed by polymer chains containing a liquid such as water) that serves as a scaffolding material for chondrocytes, and can easily synthesize one-pot. We also succeeded in establishing a synthetic pathway that can be achieved.
In today's aging society, joint diseases due to cartilage wear associated with aging are on the rise.Since damaged cartilage does not repair naturally, replacement with artificial joints is currently widely performed, but due to postoperative QOL deterioration and the need for revision surgery, replacement cartilage tissue regeneration There are high expectations for medical care.
Since cells proliferate using an extracellular matrix (ECM) as a scaffold in a living body, a material that serves as a scaffold is required even when cell culture is performed in vitro.However, until now, chondrocyte scaffolding materials have not been able to adequately mimic ECM.
In this study, using chitosan / polyethylene glycol / self-associating peptide, a hydrogel called an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN), in which multiple macromolecules are entangled with each other to form a multiple network structure. Was developed.Furthermore, we have succeeded in establishing a technique for easily synthesizing this IPN gel in a one-pot (in a single reaction vessel) instead of a multi-step synthetic reaction system including the addition of a drug or irradiation with radiation. ..This synthetic system has good regeneration efficiency and is less likely to cause problems in the living body due to the phenomenon that peptides autonomously form fibrous structures (self-organization) and the subsequent formation of covalent bonds between chitosan and polyethylene glycol. It is said that it has become.
In fact, when an experiment was conducted to culture chondrocytes using this IPN gel as a cell scaffold material, it was shown that autonomous cell proliferation and organization proceeded, and its usefulness as a scaffold material was confirmed.
This result is expected to greatly contribute to the development of cartilage regenerative medicine in the future.
