Speaker
Description
Articular cartilage (AC) is an important connective tissue located at the ends of bones in joints. AC’s unique mechanical and physical properties enable it to cushion and facilitate smooth movement. However, its limited regenerative abilities often lead to osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease affecting over 32.5 million adults in the United States. Cartilage tissue engineering aims to create porous and degradable scaffolds to serve as sites for cartilage cell regeneration in the human body. Current AC scaffolds have difficulty achieving equivalent mechanical properties to native AC. Our project synthesized biomimetic nanofiber hydrogel composites by electrospinning PLLA-PCL nanofibers, forming stacks of anisotropic nanofiber mats, and crosslinking the stacks with calcium alginate hydrogel. We performed uniaxial tests to assess the strength and viscoelastic properties of the PLLA-PCL-Alg composites. Finally, we determined their porosity and fiber alignment. We aim to determine the efficacy of PLLA-PCL-Alg composites as potential AC scaffold materials for tissue engineering.