Effect of cyclic compressive stimuli on mechanical anisotropy of chondrocyte-seeded agarose gel culture

Recently tissue engineering therapy culturing autologous chondrocytes in vitro to create three dimensional tissue for the replacement of damaged tissue has been developed. Although the tissue engineering is a useful approach to reconstruct cartilage in vitro, the mechanical property of the engineered cartilage is not sufficient to replace natural cartilage. Within the natural cartilage, cells and collagen fibers, which are main components of the cartilage, align in response to the direction of cyclic deformations induced by daily walking or other activities. Due to this collagen fiber alignment, the cartilage has mechanical anisotropy. In this study, we focus on the beneficial effect of dynamic compressive loading on tissue regeneration for articular cartilage. The purpose of this study is to create mechanically anisotropic cartilage by compressive stimuli during the culture.