1. The Application of Sodium Triple-Quantum Coherence NMR Spectroscopy for the Study of Growth Dynamics in Cartilage Tissue Engineering
- Author
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Kotecha, Mrignayani, Ravindran, Sriram, Schmid, Thomas M., Vaidyanathan, Aishwarya, George, Anne, and Magin, Richard L.
- Subjects
Cartilage, Articular ,Chondrocytes ,Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ,Tissue Engineering ,Biomimetics ,Sodium ,Animals ,Cattle ,Article ,Cells, Cultured ,Cell Proliferation - Abstract
We studied the tissue growth dynamics for tissue-engineered cartilage at the early growth stage after cell seeding for four weeks using sodium triple-quantum coherence NMR spectroscopy. The following tissue-engineering constructs were studied: 1. Bovine chondrocytes cultured in alginate beads, 2. Bovine chondrocytes cultured as pellets (scaffold-free chondrocyte pellets), 3. Human Marrow Stromal Cells (HMSC) seeded in Collagen/Chitosan based scaffolds of chondrogenic extracellular matrix environment expecting chondrogenic differentiation, named as biomimetic scaffolds. We found that the sodium triple quantum coherence spectroscopy can differentiate between different tissue-engineering constructs and the native tissues based on the fast and the slow relaxation rates as well as based on the average quadrupolar coupling. Both the fast (Tf) and the slow (Ts) relaxation times were found to be longer in the chondrocyte pellets and the biomimetic scaffolds as compared to the chondrocytes suspended in alginate beads and the human articular cartilage tissues. In all cases, it was found that the relaxation rates and the motion of sodium ions, as measured from correlation time, were dependent on the amount of macromolecules, high cell density and the anisotropy of the cartilage tissue engineering constructs. Average quadrupolar couplings were found to be lower in the engineered tissue as compared to the native tissues, presumably due to the lack of order in collagen accumulated in the engineered tissue. These results indicate the use of sodium triple quantum coherence spectroscopy as a tool to investigate anisotropy and growth dynamics of cartilage tissue engineered constructs in a simple and reliable way.
- Published
- 2013