Scaffold-free tissue-engineered cartilage grafts for nasal reconstructive surgery

无支架组织工程软骨移植用于鼻部重建手术-由于软骨组织的再生能力较低，软骨畸形和损伤的治疗对头颈部或颌面外科医生来说是一个很大的挑战。组织工程研究为头颈部软骨缺损的治疗开辟了新的前景。利用组织工程技术，有可能在体外培养出足够的鼻中隔软骨或鼻框架的其他软骨部分，使其具有所需的形状和大小，用于外科重建。不同支架上的组织工程移植在体内引起局部异物对支架的反应，使工程软骨降解。由于这些发现，开发不使用支架的软骨移植物制造技术以避免异物反应是有用的。我们认为无支架的工程软骨片可用于体外制造具有足够机械完整性、理想尺寸和形状的自体新鼻软骨移植物，用于鼻重建手术。由于间充质干细胞（MSCs）在体外具有成软骨分化的潜力，被认为是组织工程和鼻软骨缺损治疗的一个有吸引力的替代细胞来源。MSCs可以缓解细胞扩增过程中软骨细胞数量不足或去分化的问题，因为它们既可以自我复制，也可以在多种生长因子的作用下进行分化。因此，我们将在体外共培养系统中研究人骨髓间充质干细胞（bmMSCs）和人软骨细胞之间的串扰。

Scaffold-free tissue-engineered cartilage grafts for nasal reconstructive surgery - Due to the low regeneration capacity of cartilage tissue, the treatment of cartilaginous malformations and damages represent a great challenge to the head and neck or maxillofacial surgeon. Tissue engineering research has opened up new perspectives for the treatment of cartilaginous defects in the head and neck area. With tissue engineering, it is potentially possible to grow sufficient cartilage of the septum or other cartilaginous parts of the nasal framework in the desired shape and size in vitro for use in surgical reconstructions. Tissue engineered grafts on different scaffolds caused a local foreign body reaction to the scaffold in vivo, which degraded the engineered cartilage. As a result of these findings it is useful to develop techniques for fabrication of cartilage grafts without the use of a scaffold in an effort to avoid the foreign body reaction. We assume that scaffold-free engineered sheets of cartilage can be used to fabricate an autologous neo-nasal cartilage graft in vitro with adequate mechanical integrity, ideal size, and form for nasal reconstructive surgery. Due to their chondrogenic differentiation potential in vitro, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered an attractive alternative cell source for tissue engineering and treatment of nasal cartilage defects. MSCs may alleviate the problem of insufficient chondrocyte cell numbers or dedifferentiation during cell expansion, as they are able to both replicate themselves and differentiate in response to a variety of growth factors. Therefore, we will investigate the cross talk between human bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells (bmMSCs) and human chondrocytes in an in vitro co-culture system.