Biomaterials are increasingly being evolved to actively adapt to the desired microenvironments so as to introduce tissue integration, reconstruct stability, promote regeneration, and avoid immune rejection. The complexity of its mechanisms poses great challenge to current biomimetic synthetic materials. Although still at initial stage, harnessing cells, tissues, or even entire body to synthesize bioadaptive materials is introducing a promising future.
Although cartilage tissue engineering has been developed for decades, it is still unclear whether angio- genesis was the accompaniment of chondrogenesis in cartilage regeneration. This study aimed to explore the process of anti-angiogenesis during cartilage regenerative progress in cartilage repair extracellular matrix （ECM） materials under Hypoxia. C3H10T1/2 cell line, seeded as pellet or in ECM materials, was added with chondrogenic medium or DMEM medium for 21 days under hypoxia or normoxia environment. Genes and miRNAs related with chondrogenesis and angiogenesis were detected by RT-qPCR technique on Days 7, 14, and 21. Dual-luciferase report system was used to explore the regulating roles of miRNAs on angiogenesis. Results showed that the chondrogenic medium promotes chondrogenesis both in pellet and ECM materials culture. HIF1α was up-regulated under hypoxia compared with normoxia （P 〈 0.05）. Meanwhile, hypoxia enhanced chondrogenesis, miR-140-Sp exhibited higher expression while miR-146b exhibited lower expression. The chondrogenic phenotype was more stabilized in the ECM materials in chondrogenic medium than DMEM medium, with lower VEGFα expression even under hypoxia. Dual-luciferase report assays demonstrated that miR-140-5p directly targets VEGFct by binding its 3＇- UTR. Taken together, chondrogenic cytokines, ECM materials and hypoxia synergistically promoted chondrogenesis and inhibited angiogenesis, miR-140-5p olaved an imnortant role in this process.
Bone protein extract is regarded as the new generation of demineralized bone matrix. The aim of this paper is to describe and characterize the properties of demineralized bone matrix and its new generation product in addition to its application in animal and human studies. Bone protein extract has features of osteoconductivity, osteoinductivity and osteogenicity, which originate from its unique and precise processing. It has exhibited powerful bone formation capacity both in animal experiments and in clinical trials by providing an optimal microenvironment for osteogenesis. Furthermore, not only does it have excellent bio- compatibility, it also has good compatibility with other implant materials, helping it bridge the host and implanted materials. Bone protein extract could be a promising alternative for demineralized bone matrix as a bone graft substitute.
