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Microstructural heterogeneity directs micromechanics and mechanobiology in native and engineered fibrocartilage

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 477–484 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Treatment strategies to address pathologies of fibrocartilaginous tissue are in part limited by an incomplete understanding of structure–function relationships in these load-bearing tissues. There is therefore a pressing need to develop micro-engineered tissue platforms that can recreate the highly inhomogeneous tissue microstructures that are known to influence mechanotransductive processes in normal and diseased tissue. Here, we report the quantification of proteoglycan-rich microdomains in developing, ageing and diseased fibrocartilaginous tissues, and the impact of these microdomains on endogenous cell responses to physiologic deformation within a native-tissue context. We also developed a method to generate heterogeneous tissue-engineered constructs (hetTECs) with non-fibrous proteoglycan-rich microdomains engineered into the fibrous structure, and show that these hetTECs match the microstructural, micromechanical and mechanobiological benchmarks of native tissue. Our tissue-engineered platform should facilitate the study of the mechanobiology of developing, homeostatic, degenerating and regenerating fibrous tissues.

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Figure 1: PGmDs become more prevalent and larger in dense connective tissues with development, ageing and mechanical adaptation.
Figure 2: PGmDs attenuate local strain transmission and cell deformation in fibrocartilage.
Figure 3: PGmDs alter local cell mechano-response to applied tissue-level mechanical deformation.
Figure 4: HetTECs reproduce the structural, compositional and molecular features of native-tissue FmDs and PGmDs.
Figure 5: HetTECs reproduce native-tissue domain-dependent strain transfer characteristics and mechano-response.
Figure 6: HetTECs provide a platform to study mechanobiology of developing and pathological fibrous tissues.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank A. Raj for assistance with fluorescent in situ hybridization, J. Caplan and S. Qu for assistance with confocal microscopy, A. Marcozzi for assistance with histology, and J. Peloquin for finite-element model mesh generation. The research was financially supported by the National Institutes of Health grant R01 EB02425 and the Penn Center of Musculoskeletal Disorders grant P30AR050950. The authors also would like to thank the BioImaging Center at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute for providing resources that contributed to this research.

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Author notes

  1. Woojin M. Han and Su-Jin Heo: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

    Woojin M. Han, Su-Jin Heo, Tristan P. Driscoll, Claire M. McLeod & Robert L. Mauck

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

    Su-Jin Heo, Tristan P. Driscoll, Claire M. McLeod, Lachlan J. Smith & Robert L. Mauck

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA

    John F. Delucca, Randall L. Duncan & Dawn M. Elliott

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

    Lachlan J. Smith

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA

    Randall L. Duncan

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Contributions

W.M.H., S.-J.H., T.P.D., J.F.D., C.M.M., L.J.S., R.L.D., R.L.M. and D.M.E. designed the studies. W.M.H., S.-J.H., T.P.D., J.F.D. and C.M.M. performed the experiments. W.M.H., S.-J.H., T.P.D., J.F.D., C.M.M., L.J.S., R.L.D., R.L.M. and D.M.E. analysed and interpreted the data. W.M.H., S.-J.H., R.L.M. and D.M.E. drafted the manuscript, and all authors edited the final submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Robert L. Mauck or Dawn M. Elliott.

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Han, W., Heo, SJ., Driscoll, T. et al. Microstructural heterogeneity directs micromechanics and mechanobiology in native and engineered fibrocartilage. Nature Mater 15, 477–484 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4520

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