Nanofibrillar Decellularized Wharton's Jelly Matrix for Segmental Tracheal Repair

Wharton's jelly (WJ) is considered a potential scaffold in tissue-engineered trachea for its similar composition and function to cartilage tissue. However, the feasibility of using WJ to construct engineered neocartilage tissue has not been reported, let alone tubular tracheal cartilage regeneration and segmental tracheal lesion repair. Here, electrospun nanofibrous membranes composed of three different decellularized WJ matrix (DWJM)/poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) ratios (8:2, 5:5, and 2:8) are fabricated. The results demonstrate improved degradation speed, absorption, and cell adhesion capacity but weakened mechanical properties with increased DWJM content, but satisfactory homogeneous cartilage regeneration is only achieved in the DWJM/PCL (8:2) group after 12 weeks in vivo culture. Furthermore, homogeneous, 3D, tubular, trachea-shaped cartilage is constructed with a controllable lumen diameter and wall thickness based on the 2D nanofibrous membrane using a modified sandwich model, in which the chondrocyte-membrane construct is rolled around a silicon tube. Most importantly, by combining the above schemes with previously established vascularization and epithelialization techniques, chondrification, vascularization, and epithelialization are achieved simultaneously thus realizing long-term (6 months) circumferential tracheal lesion repair in a rabbit model with a biological structure and function similar to that of native trachea, representing a promising approach for the clinical application of tracheal tissue engineering.