Novel Strategy to Engineer Trachea Cartilage Graft With Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell Macroaggregate and Hydrolyzable Scaffold

Limited donor sites of cartilage and dedifferentiation of chondrocytes during expansion, low tissue reconstruction efficiency, and uncontrollable immune reactions to foreign materials are the main obstacles to overcome before cartilage tissue engineering can be widely used in the clinic. In the current study, we developed a novel strategy to fabricate tissue‐engineered trachea cartilage grafts using marrow mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) macroaggregates and hydrolyzable scaffold of polylactic acid–polyglycolic acid copolymer (PLGA). Rabbit MSCs were continuously cultured to prepare macroaggregates in sheet form. The macroaggregates were studied for their potential for chondrogenesis. The macroaggregates were wrapped against the PLGA scaffold to make a tubular composite. The composites were incubated in spinner flasks for 4 weeks to fabricate trachea cartilage grafts. Histological observation and polymerase chain reaction array showed that MSC macroaggregates could obtain the optimal chondrogenic capacity under the induction of transforming growth factor‐β. Engineered trachea cartilage consisted of evenly spaced lacunae embedded in a matrix rich in proteoglycans. PLGA scaffold degraded totally during in vitro incubation and the engineered cartilage graft was composed of autologous tissue. Based on this novel, MSC macroaggregate and hydrolyzable scaffold composite strategy, ready‐to‐implant autologous trachea cartilage grafts could be successfully fabricated. The strategy also had the advantages of high efficiency in cell seeding and tissue regeneration, and could possibly be used in future in vivo experiments.