Interface Tissue Engineering for Soft Tissue-to-Bone Integration

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most frequently injured knee ligament, with over 100,000 reconstruction surgeries performed annually. Currently, the biological fixation of soft tissue-based grafts for ACL reconstruction poses a significant clinical challenge. Our approach to biological fixation centers on the regeneration of the anatomic insertion site between soft tissue and bone. Given the characteristic spatial variation in cell type, matrix composition and mineral content inherent at the enthesis, it is expected that interface regeneration will require multiple cell types and a stratified scaffold capable of supporting multi-tissue formation. Therefore, we have developed a biomimetic, multi-phased scaffold consisting of three distinct yet continuous phases, each designed for the formation of the ligament, fibrocartilage or bone regions found at the ACL-to-bone insertion. The objective of this proposal is to optimize multi-cell culture and scaffold design parameters for interface regeneration and multi-tissue formation. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that osteoblast-fibroblast interactions can promote chondrocyte-mediated fibrocartilage formation on the scaffold. Aim 2 will optimize scaffold phase-specific mineral content and distribution. Aim 3 will focus on the formation of four distinct yet continuous tissue regions (ligament, non-mineralized fibrocartilage, mineralized fibrocartilage, and bone) through the tri-culture of fibroblasts, chondrocytes and osteoblasts on the stratified scaffold. Aim 4 will determine whether these biomimetic tissue regions formed in vitro can be maintained in vivo. Our effort to regenerate the anatomic fibrocartilage interface on ACL reconstruction grafts represents an innovative departure from the traditional focus on the non-physiologic fibrocartilage found within the bone tunnel. Moreover, the multi-phased scaffold design and tri-culture methods proposed here for multi-tissue formation are highly original. It is anticipated that the successful completion of our studies will facilitate the development of a new generation of integrative fixation devices, and our findings can be applied to many other conditions in which soft tissue-to-bone integration is also critical.