Nanofibrous Scaffolds for Cartilage Engineering
Dominique Griffon
Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine
Laboratory for Orthopedic Research on Biomaterials
Brian T. Cunningham
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Micro & Nanotechnology Lab
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) one of every three adults in the United States suffers from arthritis or chronic joint pain. Although tissue engineering offers new hope for treatment of damaged cartilage, the ideal matrix for in vitro chondrogenesis remains undetermined. The long term goal of this proposal is to improve the treatment of large articular cartilage defects by engineering osteochondral composites. The objective of this proposal is to optimize the structure of a nanofibrous scaffold in order to promote chrondrogenesis. This is innovative because the molding process used to prepare these nanofibers is novel. In addition, adjusting fiber diameter to stimulate chondrocyte functions is a strategy that has not been evaluated.