Fibrin Sealants from Fresh or Fresh/Frozen Plasma as Scaffolds for In Vitro Articular Cartilage Regeneration

Our objective was to evaluate human CryoSeal (R) fibrin glue derived from single units of plasma as scaffolds for articular cartilage tissue engineering. Human articular chondrocytes were encapsulated into genipin cross-linked fibrin glue derived from individual units of fresh or frozen plasma using the CryoSeal (R) fibrin sealant (FS) system. The constructs were cultured for up to 7 weeks in vitro under low (5%) or normal (21%) oxygen. Chondrocyte viability was >90% within the fibrin gels. Hypoxia induced significant increases in collagen II and Sox9 gene expression and a significant decrease in collagen I. A significant increase in collagen II was detected in fresh plasma-derived cultures, while only collagen I was significantly increased in frozen plasma cultures. Significant increases in total glycosaminoglycan and collagen were detected in the extracellular matrix secreted by the encapsulated chondrocytes. A significant increase in compression modulus was only observed for fresh plasma-derived gels, which is likely explained by a greater amount of collagen type I detected after 7 weeks in frozen compared to fresh plasma gels. Our results indicate that CryoSeal (R) fibrin glue derived from fresh plasma is suitable as a tissue engineering scaffold for human articular chondrocytes, and therefore should be evaluated for autologous articular cartilage regeneration.