Research Article

Successful Low-Cost Scaffold-Free Cartilage Tissue Engineering Using Human Cartilage Progenitor Cell Spheroids Formed by Micromolded Nonadhesive Hydrogel

Figure 5

The CPC spheroids formed in the hydrogel with 800 μm diameter in each circular recesses show enhanced resistance to compression after spontaneous chondrogenesis (21-day culture) compared to those cultured for 2 days (spheroids compaction). (a) Equipment used to perform the loading tests. (b, c) One CPC spheroid between 2 plates before and after compression, respectively. Note spheroid deformation of 25% of the original diameter in (c). Five compression cycles were performed, with a load phase duration of 20 seconds and a recovery phase of 10 seconds. (d) Data collected from 3 spheroids of three different samples after spheroid compaction (2 days, light gray column) and after spontaneous chondrogenesis (21 days, dark gray column) are expressed as mean ± SD. .
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)