Chemical Decellularization of Natural Cartilage Tissue for Use in Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Nowadays, culturing cells on a three-dimensional scaffold in vitro in cartilage tissue engineering is of interest to researchers. Because in biological scaffolds derived from degenerated tissues and organs, cellular antigens are removed and many structural and functional proteins of the extracellular matrix are preserved, these scaffolds have been successful in tissue engineering.

The aim of the present study was to prepare biological scaffolds derived from cartilage detoxified tissue using different concentrations of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) as a chemical ionic detergent and Triton X-100 as a non- ionic detergent. In this regard, scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate the effect of preparation processes on collagen structure and porosity of samples and hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to evaluate the success of tissue decellularization and cell nucleus observation. The toxicity of scaffold and cell adhesion on it was also investigated.

Due to the specific staining of the trichrome, the observed blue color confirmed the retention of collagen in the decellularized scaffold. The cultured fibroblasts were amplified on a decellularized sample with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (2%) and Triton X-100 (4%) solutions showed good adhesion.

The results of this study indicate that scaffolds prepared by chemical detoxification of natural cartilage tissue can be a good candidate for use in cartilage tissue engineering.