It is thought that osteoarthritis is one of the world's leading causes of disability, with over 8.75 million people in the UK alone seeking medical treatment in 2013. Although a number of treatments are currently in use, a new wave of tissue engineered structures are being investigated as potential solutions for early intervention. One of the key challenges seen in cartilage tissue engineering is producing constructs that can support the formation of articular cartilage, rather than mechanically inferior fibrocartilage. Some research has suggested that mimicking structural properties of the natural cartilage can be used to enhance this response. Herein directional freezing was used to fabricate scaffolds with directionally aligned pores mimicking the mid-region of cartilage, anti-freeze proteins were used to modify the porous structure, which in turn effected the mechanical properties. Pore areas at the tops of the scaffolds were 180.46 ± 44.17 μm2 and 65.66 ± 36.20 μm2 for the AFP free and the AFP scaffolds respectively, and for the bases of the scaffolds were 91.22 ± 19.05 μm2 and 69.41 ± 21.94 μm2 respectively. Scaffolds were seeded with primary bovine chondrocytes, with viability maintained over the course of the study, and regulation of key genes was observed.

中文翻译：

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使用抗冻蛋白改变定向冷冻海藻酸盐海绵中的孔结构，用于软骨组织工程

据认为，骨关节炎是世界上导致残疾的主要原因之一，2013 年仅在英国就有超过 875 万人寻求治疗。尽管目前正在使用多种治疗方法，但新一波的组织工程结构正在研究中作为早期干预的潜在解决方案。在软骨组织工程中看到的主要挑战之一是生产可以支持关节软骨形成的结构，而不是机械劣质纤维软骨。一些研究表明，模仿天然软骨的结构特性可用于增强这种反应。在此，定向冷冻用于制造具有模拟软骨中间区域的定向排列的孔的支架，抗冻蛋白用于修饰多孔结构，这反过来又影响了机械性能。无 AFP 支架和 AFP 支架的支架顶部孔面积分别为 180.46 ± 44.17 μm2 和 65.66 ± 36.20 μm2，支架底部的孔面积分别为 91.22 ± 19.05 μm2 和 69.41 ± 21.94 μm2。支架上接种了原代牛软骨细胞，在研究过程中保持活力，并观察到关键基因的调节。