著者

南斉 亮佑 中村 憲正 藤江 裕道

出版者

一般社団法人日本機械学会

雑誌

日本機械学會論文集. C編 (ISSN:03875024)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.76, no.769, pp.2340-2344, 2010-09-25

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We have been developing a new tissue engineering technique for cartilage repair using a scaffold-free tissue engineered construct (TEC) bio-synthesized from synovium-derived mesenchymal stem cells. A round-chondral defect of 8.5mm in diameter and 1.5mm in depth created on the medial condyle of 12 month-old mature porcine femur was filled with the TEC. Six months after surgery, a cylindrically shaped specimen of 4mm in diameter and 4-5mm in depth was extracted. Micro-indentation test was performed on the specimen using an AFM after the surface image of the specimen was obtained. Macro-scale compression test was, then, performed for the specimen using a custom made micro compression tester. As compared with many bump-like elevated portions of approximately 1-2μm in height observed in the surface of normal cartilage, rougher surface was observed in the TEC-treated and TEC-untreated tissues. The surface stiffness of the TEC-treated tissue was significantly lower than that of the normal cartilage, and slightly lower than that of the TEC-untreated tissue with no significant difference. In the quasi-static compression test, the tangent modulus of the TEC-treated tissue indicated no significant difference against the normal cartilage. In contrast, the tangent modulus of the TEC-untreated tissue was lower than those of the normal cartilage and the TEC-treated tissue, with a significant difference against the normal cartilage. It is suggested that the surface stiffness was independent of treatment of TEC, while the bulk modulus recovered well in the TEC-treated cartilage-like tissues as compared with the TEC-untreated cartilage-like tissues.